Chapter 65

Sleepwalker III

In the first battle with the meteor shower, I received a report card marked "utterly defeated."

In fact, even the term "first battle" reflects a very human-centric perspective. For the meteor shower, it was the third.

Since I’m already writing the report, I might as well write it all the way through. Although the 25th cycle me died and couldn’t witness it firsthand, after the meteor shower fell to the ground, the following scenes unfolded.

Flash―――

As soon as the starlight touched down, it evaporated everything within a radius of tens to hundreds of kilometers in an instant.

Evaporation, literally. It’s a phenomenon hard to describe with any other word.

-BOOM!

Everything within the starlight’s range—humans, animals, plants, even most monsters—turned to ash in an instant.

Not gray ash, but pure white ash, giving it a beautiful appearance.

If you run to where the meteor shower first appeared, you can witness the entire world turned into a white ashland, with countless particles floating like cherry blossoms in the air. It's quite a spectacle.

Of course, no matter how pretty it is, you shouldn’t think about getting close.

Even one step into the 'Territory of Ashes,' or even a single finger crossing the boundary, and you’ll inexplicably burn to white ash.

Yeah, this is a message for my 26th cycle self. You idiot with too much curiosity.

Thus, the entire Gyeongsangnam-do region of Korea was wiped out, but unfortunately, the meteor shower’s havoc didn’t end there.

Next came Hawaii in the Pacific, the Ingrian region of Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and so on. The meteor shower went on a world tour.

Each time, the world became perforated like Swiss cheese often seen in Tom and Jerry. The habitable area for humanity shrank accordingly.

This world tour took a total of six years.

Exactly six years after the meteor shower first fell on Korea, the entire world turned to ashes.

In the fifth year, the meteor shower hits Seoul. This time, not only the Korean Peninsula but half of East Asia gets included in the ‘Territory of Ashes.’

The meteor shower that killed me during the vacation cycle when I was running a convenience store was the one aimed at Seoul.

There are no exceptions to the apocalypse.

No matter how deep you dig underground or build a bunker, or even if you escape to the sea on a boat, the day will come when every surface on Earth is covered by the ‘Territory of Ashes.’ Even the sea turns white when struck by the meteor shower.

A beautiful death.

A bleached end.

A white world.

“…….”

In the 27th cycle, I succeeded in escaping the meteor shower.

‘Escaping’ is perhaps more accurately described as ‘scouting to strategize for the future.’ It wasn’t hard to avoid the meteor shower’s range.

Even if it meant that my base, the Korean Peninsula, Dang Seo-rin, and many of my connections would be turned to ashes by the starlight, I meticulously gathered information on that monster.

‘I must endure now.’

It was a familiar task for a regressor like me.

It was around this time that I started using the term "anomaly" or “grotesques” instead of "monster." Observing the meteor shower made me revise many of my preconceptions about monsters.

Of course, that didn’t mean a miracle like defeating the meteor shower happened right away.

Because at this point, the Korean Peninsula was a literal hell.

“Immortal life! Eternal flame! Celestial court!”

“Oh! You know the New Buddha! If you just wear flowers on your head, you can survive even if your limbs are blown off!”

“Why do we need awakeners? If you just believe in the New Buddha, you can truly achieve eternal life!”

In the seventh year, a meteor shower hit Gyeongsangnam-do, and on top of that, the World Tree ‘Udumbara’ fully bloomed.

And that wasn’t all. If Baekhwa Girls' High School wasn’t properly sealed, our dark mage junior, Cheon Yo-hwa, would gleefully create an ‘academy city.’

Honestly, even as a regressor, this was too much bad luck.

A meteor strike comparable to a nuclear explosion, an apocalyptic cult spreading across East Asia, and a zombie city added to the mix? What is this? Are they telling me to just die quietly?

‘I must endure.’

So I obediently died.

Yes, a regressor can just die and start over.

‘A flow of change will surely come someday.’

In other words, I bided my time.

Sometimes I died from the starlight bombardment, sometimes I got bitten by the million-strong zombie army of the academy city. I refined strategies for the world's end and lamented the lack of a masterpiece to execute those strategies while growing impatient, enduring and enduring, waiting.

Can I really clear stages this difficult? No, these stages?

I endured.

Maybe it was time for me to, like Old Man Scho, shed my sense of duty and focus on enjoying small pleasures. After all, I knew better than anyone that no matter how many regressions I went through, the world didn’t change much.

I endured.

What if I just told Dang Seo-rin everything?

I endured.

And then.

“The constellations don’t exist.”

Finally.

“The Saintess of National Salvation and the Conqueror of the Alps, they’re all characters I created by myself.”

Splash.

A small wave rippled through my world.

―Finally, the tide of change had arrived.

No matter how much the world forced the genre of despair upon me, I, the Undertaker, never broke.

If Oh Dok-seo had heard me, she might have retorted, “No, mister, that unbreakable spirit is exactly the key seasoning that makes despair delicious,” but I’d cleanly ignore such comments from a literary pervert otaku.

Game Changer.

The Saintess’s overwhelming awakening abilities turned the tide of war, which had repeated dozens of times, completely.

[I found it, Mr. Undertaker.]

[Chungcheongnam-do. Asan. Onyang.]

World Tree Udumbara, extermination complete.

The regressor’s ‘knowledge’ of the future and the Clairvoyant’s ‘sight’ of the present created an overwhelming synergy.

Even aside from her awakening abilities, the Saintess was a reliable partner.

We shared information, planned strategies, and together, we eliminated the factors turning the Korean Peninsula into a fiery hell.

“However, I can’t seem to figure out how to deal with the meteor shower. Starlight falling from the sky, and the effect of forcibly putting people to sleep…….”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

I said.

“The only role you need to take on right now, Saintess, is that of a prophet.”

“……?”

The Saintess tilted her head.

Before long, a translucent message appeared to all the awakeners active in Korea.

[The Saintess of National Salvation sends out a quest.]

“Huh?”

“What?”

The awakeners read the quest window with puzzled expressions.

The message read as follows:

──────────

[Meteor Strike]

In six years, a top-class anomaly called ‘Meteor Shower’ will fall on the Korean Peninsula. The meteor shower will burn down the entire southern part of the peninsula.

Survive the threat of the meteor shower.

-Reward: Survival

-Failure: Death

──────────

A quest distributed to all the awakeners in Korea. Thanks to the Saintess’s [Telepathy] ability, the message was transmitted both as voice and text.

Of course, the messages were sent under the name of a constellation, not the Saintess herself.

“Wha? Death? Just die?”

“Damn it. What kind of quest is this?”

“There’s no chance this is a hoax… right?”

The awakeners fell into confusion.

Even I, the regressor, was almost fooled, the Saintess impersonated the constellations so well. It was extremely hard to doubt the authenticity of a quest given by a constellation. Who would imagine a madman using [Clairvoyance], [Telepathy], and [Time Stop] all at once to impersonate the constellations?

Moreover, this was the moment that revealed how skillful the Saintess was at manipulating the constellations, thus showing her natural talent for inciting the awakeners’ psychology.

“An anomaly? A meteor shower? …What’s that?”

“There are no clues except that it’s six years away. How are we supposed to proceed with this quest?”

“Is there anyone with specific information? If you share it with our guild, we will reward you handsomely!”

The Saintess didn’t reveal all the information at once. She guided the awakeners to voluntarily piece together the clues.

[The Chancellor of the Red Cape secretly tells you that anomaly is the term constellations use for monsters.]

To particularly devoted awakeners, she gradually leaked information as if it were special knowledge meant just for them.

[The chain quest for ‘Meteor Strike’ has been activated!]

For specific awakeners, she framed the information about the meteor shower as a quest, revealing it step by step.

──────────

[Identity of the Meteor Shower] (2/4)

So far, it has been revealed that the meteor shower is the entity responsible for destroying numerous worlds.

If the starlight of the meteor shower touches the ground, no one can escape destruction.

Currently, you are the only one who has accurately grasped the danger of the meteor shower.

──────────

I prepared all the quest rewards to motivate them.

Having run a convenience store once, I knew that in an emergency, I could secure a significant portion of the remaining logistics in Korea.

I hid the stolen goods in a remote warehouse, and when the constellation revealed the warehouse’s location as an ‘event reward,’ the awakeners eagerly rushed to gather the supplies.

Additionally, when Cheon Yo-hwa joined our operation later, the authenticity of the ‘quests given by the constellations’ reached its peak.

“Oh, the meteor shower? Indeed. They led my homeworld to its end.”

“I’m just a fugitive. So, I don’t know much about the meteor shower. But rumor has it… that before the starlight falls from the night sky, a song always resounds.”

These NPCs were created by Cheon Yo-hwa under my orders.

Occasionally, when entering the depths of the void, NPC villages would be found. The NPCs claimed to be ‘refugees from a world that had already been destroyed.’

“A song? What song?”

“I don’t know the details either.”

“Ha, this seems like crucial information……. We’re stuck here.”

The NPCs’ zombie-like appearance, with parts of their bodies melting away, added visual impact and credibility to their statements. To the uninformed, it would seem like an ominous sign of something truly terrible about to happen.

About a year passed like that.

-Anonymous: Comprehensive compilation of information on the top-class anomaly ‘Meteor Shower.’

-[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Regarding the ‘song’ consistently reported in quests related to the meteor shower.

-Anonymous: Posting the messages supposedly sent by constellations regarding the meteor shower so far.

A ‘Meteor Shower Board’ was even created on SG Net.

Here, the awakeners not only voluntarily organized the information but also actively discussed strategies.

Believing the information was hard-earned through their own blood and sweat, they became more convinced of the meteor shower’s appearance.

There were always one or two awakeners like Old Man Scho who doubted the existence of the constellations.

But combining the Saintess’s [Clairvoyance], [Telepathy], and [Time Stop], Cheon Yo-hwa’s [NPC Creation], my future knowledge as the regressor, and skillful resource distribution created an unquestionable sense of ‘authenticity.’

As a result.

-Anonymous: There’s only a year left until the meteor shower appears. Shouldn’t we start joint training between guilds?

-Anonymous: I heard Samcheon World already periodically gathers allied guilds for training.

-Anonymous: Objectively speaking, Dang Seo-rin is the only leader for Korea.

└Anonymous: Are you wearing a pointy hat?

The awakeners in Korea were fully prepared to hunt the meteor shower.

From now on, it was the regressor’s time.

Footnotes:

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