Chapter 268

Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapercomics

◈ I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell

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The Merger II

As someone with countless cycles as a regressor under his belt, I had developed some bad habits, chief among them being an obsession with "route optimization."

How should I introduce myself Dang Seo-rin to establish the best possible relationship? Would deliberately letting Cheon Yo-hwa land a kick during our first encounter at Baekhwa Girls’ High School actually improve my standing? Or perhaps Sim Ah-ryeon was best approached after she began her OldManGoryeo activities so I could at least evoke some semblance of shame in her? And so on.

As my routines became more and more rigid, reality itself started to lose its luster.

There’s a reason why so many regressors in fiction are depicted as mentally unstable. After all, sometimes, we human beings just need to chase not efficiency but romance.

“Let’s abandon Busan.”

Thus, it was time to bid a fond farewell to the city of Busan, which had long served as a bastion in my life as a regressor.

Of course, Do-hwa’s expression soured the moment she heard my declaration. A trickle of coffee escaped her lips.

As someone whose brain never even registered the word “romance” in its dictionary, her response was to be expected.

“Excuse me?”

“Do-hwa, you need to free yourself from the idea that we must remain grounded in some city to fight until the end of days. Ha-yul, bring it out.”

“Okay, oppa. You mean this, right?”

Ha-yul strode forward, unfolding a blueprint onto the table.

Having grown accustomed to Do-hwa’s prosthetics, she no longer relied on a wheelchair and had even mastered her ability to produce a pseudo-voice using Aura.

The blueprint was labeled as follows:

——————————————————————

Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress City

『BusaN』

——————————————————————

The coffee streaming from the corner of Do-hwa’s lips turned into a veritable flood. She looked like she needed a dam installed posthaste.

In this ruthless era of the apocalypse, everyone was expected to fend for themselves, so no one bothered to wipe her face clean. Instead, we proceeded with the presentation.

“Abandonment is liberation, a transcendence. Just as a caterpillar sheds its cocoon to soar into the skies, we too must leave Busan behind to ascend to greater heights.”

“Busan, the last line of defense on the Korean Peninsula, will no longer be content as a mere port gazing out over the southern seas.”

“All the construction materials that make up the city of Busan will be repurposed to create a mobile fortress.”

“Not an easy feat.”

“But yet still, a feat worth attempting.”

The presentation moved to the next slide, manually operated with the tender touch of a mother crafting homemade delicacies.

“The Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress City, BusaN, will house a fleet of multi-purpose humanoid combat robots, tested during pilot Lee Ha-yul’s alpha phase. In essence, it will be a land-based aircraft carrier capable of walking.”

“But robots aren’t the only weapons.”

“Behold the massive cannon mounted on the bridge. It’s a beam launcher. While the robots engage in close combat, BusaN will support them from the rear or sometimes the front, firing beams in all directions.”

“And that’s not all.”

“It will also require constant maintenance. Engineers will board the fortress, and as humanity’s last cradle, it will house as many civilians as possible.”

“At least 50,000.”

“At most, up to 100,000.”

“Hence, the term Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress City might feel overly reductive.”

“Its full official name is Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress Humanity’s Final Defense Ark City.”

“Magnificent. Approved.”

“In a world ravaged by apocalypse and barren continents, BusaN will let us face the future unafraid. We can go anywhere. That concludes the project’s tagline. Thank you.”

Ha-yul and I bowed deeply toward the audience.

Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap...

Applause echoed through the conference room.

Beside Do-hwa, the shimmeringly silver-haired Yu Ji-won rose to her feet and clapped enthusiastically. Even a North Korean citizen would have praised her for the display of supreme wrist flexibility.

“Truly an extraordinary paradigm shift, Your Excellency. There’s no inherent reason a city must remain in a fixed location. I, Yu Ji-won, will follow your blueprint with unyielding determination.”

“I agree too!”

Following her lead, the fiery redhead Oh Dok-seo, a perpetual middle school repeater, leaped up from her chair. Her face shone with emotion, like grease dripping from a skillet.

“Wow! A land battleship city! This is it! It’s like the Walkers from Star Wars, only heavier, clunkier, and more haphazardly designed—which makes it even cooler![1] Oh! Or like the Traction Cities from Mortal Engines, but even better with the choice of quadrupedal movement.[2] Pure artistry. If only the name Busan weren’t so mundane, it’d be perfect!”

“Dok-seo, it’s not Busan. It’s BusaN. I trust you’ll respect that subtle distinction.”

“Oh, right! My bad, mister! This is BusaN, not Busan!”

Next, Ah-ryeon stood up shyly, scratching the back of her head with an embarrassed smile.

“I-I handled the design! The concept was ‘a m-moving Kowloon Walled City.’ See how the outer areas of the fortress are p-packed with precariously attached residential zones? I d-deliberately made them unstable so that every time the fortress takes a step, the whole city shakes. The lower classes will face constant survival challenges. If th-they want to live, they’ll have to work hard to move to the c-core of the fortress...”

“Ah-ryeon unnie, you’re amazing!” cried Dok-seo with a great burst of tears. “Now that’s what the apocalypse is all about! This is steampunk! When the fortress walks, hot steam should hiss out around its edges while the lower-class citizens curse the pollution. They’ll call it BusaN’s breath— No, its stench! Oh, I’m overflowing with inspiration!”

“Eh-heh-heh, I tried my best.”

And that was as far as it went.

“...”

“...”

“...”

Excluding myself, Ha-yul, Ji-won, Dok-seo, and Ah-ryeon, the rest of the meeting attendees sat motionless, their mouths firmly shut as they took in the deeply moving moment.

There they were. Prominent figures like Seo-rin, Yo-hwa, and Do-hwa—who usually clashed on every issue—united in silence.

“Ahhh.”

Yo-hwa was the first to sigh.

“I see now,” she said. “The moment Teacher shifts from being a rationalist to an irrationalist, this is what happens...”

“Oh for fuck’s— Why now of all times?” muttered Do-hwa, wiping her mouth.

“Hey, Great Witch, can’t you stop him? He actually listens to you sometimes.”

“Sorry, no can do.”

“Why not?”

“My hands are tied. The Undertaker and the Puppeteer already came to me beforehand and said, ‘You know how much you love your railroads? That’s how important this is to us.’”

“So if you give up your train obsession, they’ll abandon their ridiculous mobile fortress? I fail to see the problem. Why anyone wastes their lives on rail enthusiasm when we don’t even have functional trains anymore is beyond me.”

“Anti-otakus should keep their mouths shut.”

Transforming Busan into BusaN Proposal

Meeting Notes:

Attendees: Undertaker, Lee Ha-yul, Yu Ji-won, Oh Dok-seo, Sim Ah-ryeon, Dang Seo-rin, Cheon Yo-hwa, Do-hwa, Seo Gyu, and the Saintess (remote participation)

In favor: 6

Opposed: 3

Abstained: 1

Majority in favor. Proposal passed!

While the rushed voting might’ve made the last remaining pollster in the Republic of Korea faint, democracy had long since dwindled into a niche fandom among a select few on the Korean Peninsula.

We represented the totality of Korea’s consensus. Thus, we moved forward, united in purpose, to begin the construction of the Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Humanity’s Final Defense Ark City, affectionately shortened to BusaN.

BusaN Production Project Phase 1: Construction

“All right, Seo-rin. Let’s start stockpiling building materials.”

“This... This is not why I shortened my lifespan to learn magic...”

Everything except the design and blueprints was left to Seo-rin.

Surprised? Allow me to remind you.

Seo-rin was the one who had built the Arks. She had even erected a 399-meter-tall statue of the Great Potato Saintess in the middle of Busan back when she was utterly smitten with her.

Her grumbling now was clearly an act. Deep down, I was sure she loved the idea of a colossal mobile city.

“Do you see those abandoned buildings along the hills? Just cast a clean weight-reduction spell, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Fine...”

A task that might’ve taken decades with construction equipment like cranes and excavators was taken care of with a single beat of her magical chant.

For days, the streets of Busan echoed with Seo-rin’s singing. Residents, lulled to sleep by her melodic voice, enjoyed noticeably better rest as a side effect.

https://dsc.gg/reapercomics

BusaN Production Project Phase 2: Interior Fittings

Once the enormous frame of the mobile fortress started to take shape, we began work on the interior. This, too, was a familiar task from past cycles.

“Ha-yul, you need to thread marionette strings through every corridor. Without them, the fortress can’t move.”

“Leave it to me.”

Hadn’t we done this already in the 664th cycle while building the Ark? The only difference was the scale. Otherwise, the experience translated perfectly.

Multiple layers of outer walls were added, and strings were densely threaded between every floor, ceiling, and wall.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Seriously. This thing is massive,” Do-hwa muttered.

“That Ark you built back then—didn’t it only transmit basic Morse code through the strings? How on earth are you going to move an entire city like this?”

“Don’t worry. Overwhelming Aura solves everything.”

“Even if you had Aura pouring out like water, the problem is control. How do you expect to manage all these strings? Moving a city is obviously beyond human capability...”

I flashed her a cryptic smile. “This is where the ultimate AI comes in.”

“What...?”

I pulled a laptop out of my backpack. With a press of the power button, the screen lit up, displaying a familiar emoji.

( • ω - ) ☆

In one corner of the screen, a chibi 2D character with white hair peeked out shyly, then ducked away.

“Allow me to introduce our central AI for BusaN: Admin of the Infinite Metagame. It’s incredibly high-performance and perfectly capable of managing the entire city.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Isn’t that an Outer God?”

“It’s fine. It owes me one,” I said cheerily, locking eyes with the emoji on the screen. “Infinite Metagame, you tried to stab me in the back by collaborating with Infinite Void during the Mastermind hunt, didn’t you? If you help with this project, I’ll let that slide.”

[AOIM - I fail to comprehend. I have no recollection of such events.]

[AOIM - However, as a benevolent Anomaly, I accept Regressor Undertaker’s proposal purely out of goodwill.]

“Good. Do better next time.”

[AOIM - Understood.]

With the central AI now on board to oversee the city’s operations, BusaN’s exterior and interior were complete.

This entire process took three years. By that point, there wasn’t a single intact building left in Busan. Everything had been dismantled and moved onto BusaN’s back, along with most of its citizenry. Those who insisted on remaining grounded relocated to other cities like Daejeon. Hopefully, it was the right choice for them.

BusaN Production Project Phase 3: The Finishing Touch

At last, the construction was nearing completion.

As ancient ships once adorned their prows with figureheads of gods and mermaids to ensure safe voyages, so too did BusaN need a guardian to bless its journey.

“Ready, Undertaker?”

“Of course, Ha-yul.”

From the outset, Ha-yul and I had agreed on the perfect figurehead for our city: her father, Jung Sang-guk.

“Waaaaaaah!”

“Now, don’t squirm. You’ll just make this harder for everyone. Ha-yul, is it aligned?”

“Move it slightly to the left.”

“Here?”

“A bit more southeast.”

“Here?”

“Perfect.”

The bow of the Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Humanity’s Final Defense Ark City, BusaN, now bore the dangling figure of its former mayor and current head of the provisional government, Jung Sang-guk.

Remarkably, he was still alive.

When Ha-yul and I had first met in this cycle, I had told her, “You’re a famous Electra-complex,” and she, true to her contrarian nature, declared she’d keep her father alive this time.

Thus, after a long journey, Jung Sang-guk had returned as the radiant symbol of Neo-Busan—now BusaN.

Could there ever have been a more filial daughter in all of Korean history than Lee Ha-yul? I doubted it.

[AOIM - Initiating BusaN’s control systems.]

[AOIM - All engines operational.]

[AOIM - Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Humanity’s Final Defense Ark City, launching.]

Rumble, rumble, rumble...!

The city, now a massive mobile fortress, began releasing a fierce steam of Aura as its legs took their first steps.

Even my skeptical companions, who had doubted the feasibility of this project, couldn’t hide their excitement and awe.

[AOIM - No Anomalies detected.]

[AOIM - Welcome aboard BusaN, dear citizens.]

[AOIM - Captain, please set a destination.]

“To the other side of the Ural Mountains.”

[AOIM - Destination confirmed.]

Cheers erupted around us.

For today, at least, humanity seemed less like a species on the brink of extinction and more like a group of dreamers who had just realized a grand vision.

Except for one man. Dangling as BusaN’s figurehead, Jung Sang-guk whispered to himself faintly, his voice drowned out by the roar of the engines.

“Kill... me...”

It was a fitting inaugural speech for the newly crowned symbol of Busan.

Footnotes:

[1] The Walkers, or All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) Walkers, are all-terrain vehicles used by the imperial forces in the Star Wars franchise. They are one of the most famous symbols of the Empire's military might.

[2] In the Mortal Engines franchise, Traction Cities are vast, tiered metropolises that move on gigantic wheels or caterpillar tracks and that hunt smaller cities for resources and fuel.