Infinite Regression Gallery
Infinite Regression Gallery
These days, the news and YouTube are in chaos.
-Player Han Si-yeon! Please share your thoughts on extending humanity's fate by another year this time as well!
The kid who was happiest when running to the PC bang is dead.
-The next floor is a boss monster floor, when do you plan to climb next?!
The boy from his school days who played every game imaginable is also dead.
-Player Han Si-yeon! Player Han Si-yeon!
Ever since the black tower rose in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I, a once-thriving pro gamer, have died.
What does the Tower have to do with my past self?
It has a hell of a lot to do with it.
Because I've caught a mental illness that 21st-century modern people are highly likely to get.
Tower-Longing Syndrome.
It's a mental illness where ordinary people who haven't awakened as players feel boredom or mild depression in their daily lives.
"Ughhh."
The problem is that I'm a severe case among severe cases.
Everything other than the Tower felt meaningless to me.
To what extent?
To the point where daily life was impossible.
Even when playing in important matches.
'What's happening in the Tower right now?'
"No, hyung, what's wrong with you? Pull yourself together!"
Even when eating.
'What are the players doing right now?'
Even when riding the elevator or taking a shower.
Thoughts about the Tower never left me.
It means I'm a terminal patient who should be recommended for hospitalization.
Eventually, I retired from the pro scene and became a "resting" pro gamer.
Fortunately, I had money saved up, so I could barely scrape by.
I buried my nose in my phone screen and shouted.
"I want to awaken, too! I want to awaken!"
A mysterious tower that suddenly appeared in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Monolith.
Since the Tower appeared, the world's genre evolved from modern times to game fantasy.
Because the tiny minority of Awakened who were chosen by the Tower literally evolved into a new human species.
I mean real new humans who wield lightning and control fire.
The Tower announced to all of humanity that if they didn't clear floors at regular intervals to collect clear points, it would f*ck up the world.
The chaos didn't last long.
The Awakened, or players, began entering the Tower under government leadership to collect clear points.
A structure where you get stronger by clearing stages.
And the pouring of magic stones and all sorts of bizarre items.
It was exactly the same as a game system.
That's probably why they call the Awakened "players."
Humanity's extinction mentioned by the Tower?
With players around, what extinction?
Humanity had long forgotten the word "extinction" thanks to the abundance brought by the players.
The world was in a festive mood.
Just up to the 10th floor.
That floor where the first boss monster appears was the problem.
Players were frustrated in front of the 10th-floor wall.
Humanity was frustrated along with them.
But they say even if the sky falls, there's a hole to crawl out of.
A legendary player appeared who easily broke through the 10th-floor wall that everyone was despairing over.
Thunder Emperor, Han Si-yeon.
She is the strongest Korean player in Monolith Online.
For your information, she is the Awakened one currently on the YouTube live stream.
-Player Han Si-yeon! The hard difficulty boss is famous for being heinous, a word on your resolve!
And not just a normal difficulty player, but a hard difficulty player.
Until Han Si-yeon revealed herself to the world, we didn't even know there were difficulties in the Tower.
When she cleared the hard difficulty boss, a large amount of clear points accumulated, and humanity was able to delay the countdown to extinction by a long time.
It was a natural flow for the wealth and honor existing in this world to be concentrated on her.
I shouted while looking at her appearance on the YouTube live stream.
"I'm jealous! So jealous!"
Yeah.
I admit it.
I'm a bit pathetic.
A grown adult seeing a player and writhing because I want to awaken too.
I know it's pathetic.
But I have something to say, too.
I just want you to know that I'm not doing this out of jealousy for wealth and honor.
"Seriously! It would be f*cking fun!"
I'm someone who played and cleared every game imaginable and even became a pro gamer.
But an all-time great surreal game called Monolith appeared.
The most fun game in the world, one that's overflowing with value to challenge, is right in front of me, but I can't actually play it.
So how could I not go crazy?
I'm dying of envy.
Wealth? The more, the better.
Honor? It's good. Who would hate it?
But for me, those weren't very important factors.
"The Tower! Monolith!"
The greatest surreal game in human history where you can challenge endlessly as long as you don't die.
"I want to play, too!"
Once I knew about the all-time GOAT game called Monolith, other games didn't even catch my eye.
"Let me enter, too! Me too! I'm confident I can do well!"
That was when it happened.
When Han Si-yeon on the screen snapped her fingers, golden lightning burst out.
Crackle!
The YouTube live stream I was watching so intently ended in an instant.
"Ah."
Did she f*ck up the camera with lightning?
Han Si-yeon has been avoiding media exposure quite a bit lately anyway.
"Hard difficulty 30th-floor boss, huh."
That feeling.
I understand it perfectly.
The boss room is right in front of her, so there's no way anything else would catch her eye.
I lay on the bed and writhed pathetically.
"Ugh, I'm jealous! It would be fun! I want to awaken too!"
Wouldn't the Tower get sick of my all-time level of patheticness and awaken me?
"......Enter."
A buzzword of this era that I've repeated thousands of times already.
Nothing like a miracle happened.
"Sigh."
Han Si-yeon went missing, and the world was ruined.
It was completely ruined.
Even though it was a damn world that wouldn't give me an entry ticket.
I really didn't know it would actually be ruined.
I didn't even want it to be ruined in the first place.
I stared blankly up at the sky.
A translucent window, the one I saw when the tower first appeared, was floating right there in the sky.
[The extinction countdown has ended.]
[Clear points are insufficient.]
[As of this time, the Tower's dismantling process begins.]
[Damages caused by falling debris and dimensional collapse are the player's responsibility, so the Tower will not take any responsibility.]
"Ha......"
The worst-case scenario that anyone in the 21st century has imagined at least once.
When I actually faced the ending of that scenario, I didn't feel as intense emotions as I thought I would.
I just felt empty.
"If it was going to be like this, why didn't you give me an entry ticket, too?"
I was confident I could do well.
If not awakening until the end is a sin, then that's my sin.
This damn luck-based f*cking game.
Go get review-bombed.
Crack!
Cracks began to appear in the sky, and humanity was ruined just like that.
That was my first regression.
I didn't understand how I died.
It just felt like the sky split and everything went black before my eyes.
Only after opening my eyes in my studio apartment could I realize that I had died and come back to life.
"Huh?"
I was confused.
A wave of emotions more intense than ever before surged.
I was actually calm when the world was ruined.
But after opening my eyes, my head felt hot.
The confusing sensation lasted only a moment.
I soon calmed down and realized.
That I was an Awakened.
And not just that, but a Regressor, something there was no way of knowing before I died!
"I-it's real."
A translucent window made of Monolith's unique interface was floating in front of my eyes.
It was that notice saying it would f*ck up humanity if we didn't collect clear points.
I regressed to the day Monolith was officially released.
"Oh my god."
Ecstasy.
An overwhelming ecstasy intense enough to melt my brain!
It's the sensation of my brain being pickled in a sea of dopamine.
I don't think I'll ever feel more dopamine than this in my life, right?
My brain is as good as broken at this moment.
"Crazy, crazy!"
It's dizzying.
It feels like my body is falling endlessly.
"I'm, I'm a player too......!"
I can enter the Tower.
I can play Monolith.
With that one fact alone, my mental illness was completely cured.
Suddenly, even the stains on the ceiling started to look beautiful.
'Is this the world that players see?'
You guys were the only ones seeing this good stuff!
A new message window popped up, as if to nail down the fact that I had awakened in addition to regressing.
[Awakened Lee Han-gyeol, congratulations on becoming a player.]
[First regression recognized.]
[Awakened ability is Infinite Regression.]
[When the first entrant appears, the extinction timer visible only to the Awakened starts.]
I thought I wouldn't be able to taste that kind of dopamine ever again after experiencing regression.
I was wrong.
There was no limit to the dopamine a human brain could accept.
"Ugh-ugh-ah."
My brain feels like it's melting into mush.
Infinite Regression?
Infinite Regression?
At this moment, there was only one thought filling my head.
'I can play Monolith even if I die and die again!'
Perhaps because my brain was half-mush.
I opened my mouth with slurred pronunciation.
"I, I'm an infinite-"
In an instant.
Flash!
The message sent by the Tower turned off, and a translucent window popped up in front of my eyes with lightning speed.
[Never speak of Infinite Regression out loud!]
"Hup?"
It wasn't that I recognized the content and shut my mouth.
It was just that I was so surprised that my mouth shut on its own.
I came to my senses belatedly.
"What is this?"
After fishing my brain out of the sea of dopamine, I slowly scanned the second window.
It's not Monolith's unique interface.
It's a completely new type of interface.
Above all, why shouldn't I speak of Infinite Regression out loud?
I was going to set everything else aside and enter the Tower, but isn't the timing quite ironic?
"What would happen if I said it?"
I was curious.
Out of curiosity, I read the contents of the new window.
[You are an Infinite Regressor.]
[You can enter the Infinite Regression Gallery.]
[Make sure to get into the habit of thinking in abbreviations and speaking in abbreviations.]
Infinite Regression Gallery......
Abbreviated as IR Gallery?
As I thought that, a new window popped up immediately.
Flash!
[Welcome to the Infinite Regression Gallery.]
A familiar interface of a site I'd seen somewhere before.
The gallery's name, Infinite Regression Gallery, was hung like a banner, and various posts were uploaded below it.
[Infinite Regression <- If it's a cursed GOAT, upvote lol][12]
[I've played the hero about a thousand times, that's enough. Now I'll live for myself][10]
[Give up lol It's comfortable if you give up][7]
[My regression points are messed up, I regress 5 minutes after opening my eyes, it's so hard, someone please save me][20]
It's very bewildering.
Why is the atmosphere here like this?
Why is everyone steeped in despair?
As I was blankly looking at the gallery and trying to organize the situation, a new post was uploaded quickly.
[Everyone stop whining and look at the Finger Flicking Technique I developed]
A post with an atmosphere quite different from the existing one.
I thought I wanted to click on that post as if possessed.
Then, didn't I automatically connect to that post?
[Everyone stop whining and look at the Finger Flicking Technique I developed]
[Author: Martial God]
(A video of a light sphere flying away and erasing a mountain entirely after snapping fingers)
I made it after getting enlightenment while picking my nose, and the power is better than I thought lol
I couldn't help but be amazed after watching the video.
Even Thunder Emperor Han Si-yeon's lightning wasn't to that extent.
But what?
You made it while picking your nose?
The video content and the atmosphere of the post don't match at all.
Just as I was thinking that, a comment was posted.
└Archmage) That is a shallow enlightenment
└Martial God) Old man, don't you see I said I made it while picking my nose?
└PoisonCoated) So can you kill the Heavenly Demon with this?
└Martial God) F*ck you
After that, the comment section started to be plastered with keyboard battles.
I was so dumbfounded that I let out a hollow laugh and read other posts.
[I've played the hero about a thousand times, that's enough. Now I'll live for myself]
[Author: Solo Hero*]
Ah lol it's time to go on a vacation round lol
└Vampire Princess) I downvote persistent posts
└Solo Hero*) Do you want to get blocked?
└Vampire Princess) I was wrong! I was wrong!
└Dungeon Thief) (A meme of praising the Head Admin from now on)
└PoisonCoated) Does this vacation ever end? lol
Seeing the orange star next to the fixed nickname "Solo Hero," it seemed like that person was the administrator of this gallery, the Head Admin.
"It's really strangely similar to that site......"
And what's a vacation round?
I tried to leave a comment but gave up and finished reading other posts.
Originally, for newbies, "shut up and watch for three days" is the rule.
[My regression points are messed up, I regress 5 minutes after opening my eyes, it's so hard, someone please save me]
[Author: Dungeon Thief]
You guys don't speak of Infinite Regression out loud
(A meme of a strange character smoking)
└Heresy Purger) May salvation be with you, sister.
└PoisonCoated) Idiot lol
└Martial God) Ah, I can't laugh at this, seriously;;
└Puppet Master) It's a higher probability than you think
└Dungeon Thief) What?
└Puppet Master) The probability of regression points getting messed up because you spoke of Infinite Regression in your sleep
└Vampire Princess) LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
.
.
.
.
I read the IR Gallery for quite a while.
And I realized a whopping six facts.
First. IR Gallery users are Infinite Regressors from other dimensions.
Second. The IR Gallery is not affected by regression.
Third. All IR Gallery users are monsters beyond the heavens.
Fourth. Even so, they haven't achieved their own happy endings.
Fifth. Infinite Regressors are all crazy people without exception.
And the most important sixth.
I almost f*cked up.
Seriously.