The Only Older Brother
The Only Older Brother
[ Warning! An illustration will appear right after this. Please be careful. ]
-[ Rebound Healing activated! Significantly reduces damage caused by < Regression >.]
"Heut!"
'Wh... What? I had this weird feeling, didn't I?'
I hastily threw off the blanket covering my body and raised my upper body.
A spine-chilling feeling.
It was a sensation I had never felt before.
On top of that, my lower body is damp.
'What the...?'
Rubbing my still drowsy eyes, I looked at the sight beneath the blanket I had tossed aside.
The bedsheet had turned soggy.
A sticky, transparent liquid pooling between my thighs.
Seeing that, I was horrified.
"I... I..."
At this age, I wet the bed?
"Uaaaah!"
Hastily reaching out to the side, I pulled out a bunch of tissues and started wiping up the pooled urine first.
'I... I must be out of my mind..'
I hadn't drawn a map even once since elementary school, yet at twenty-four, ending up in a state like this.
'Still... nobody saw it, so.'
Juseomjuseom, I stripped off the urine-stained blankets.
As I looked around, a fact naturally dawned on me.
This place is my room.
'My room?'
I regressed?
Fumbling around my pillow, an familiarly shaped smartphone came into view.
A phone adorned with cute pink mascot stickers.
'Cute no matter when I see it..'
The date appeared when I double-tapped the screen.
June 11th.
The day of the 14th-floor raid.
"Why... did I regress?"
I carefully sifted through my memories.
'Come to think of it, wasn't I definitely smashing the 14th floor?'
I remembered giving the commands, and Doyoon-oppa delivering the final blow alongside the raid team.
Oppa, supported by me, falling like a meteor from high in the sky to pulverize the T-Rex.
"Striking the final blow together with Doyoon-oppa, and then..."
After that memory, things get hazy.
The only things that came to mind were a light so bright it hurt my eyes, and pitch-black darkness where nothing could be seen.
Just those two things.
'A Hidden Gimmick... is it?'
There are no memories after that.
"Normally, if things turn out like this, it means there's something I can't handle..."
What on earth is it?
For the first time in a while, my head was cluttered.
Except for the early days of regression when I kept dying and retrying blindly, there had never been a time like this.
'To think something like this would happen again..'
An uncanny sensation, mixing unease with joy, washed over me.
Because the fact that there was something I hadn't figured out yet also meant there might be a way to break through the demonic 99th floor where I always failed.
'Status window.'
My usual routine.
Whenever I regressed, I turned on the status window to check.
- [ Dabin Lee ]
- [ Abilities: <Magical Girl Transformation>,<Regression-NEW!>,<Rebound Healing> ]
'Regression-NEW?'
What is this?
- [ Regression-NEW! : Regress upon reaching Female Depravity Climax caused by Kang Doyoon who possesses <Contamination>. ]
Huh?
'The regression condition has... changed?'
And on top of that, the condition...
'Female Depravity Climax? Caused by Kang Doyoon?'
"Kkyaaaah!"
I reflexively let out a scream.
My face started burning hot.
'I... I must be crazy! What is this? Kang Doyoon? Isn't Kang Doyoon oppa's name?'
If it's Female Depravity Climax, that must be it, right?
That...
That?
'What on earth is that?'
Why did my face burn so much at the phrase Female Depravity Climax?
Come to think of it, I don't know what those words mean.
'Then why...?'
Right then.
With a beolkeok sound, the bedroom door opened.
Immediately after regression.
I returned all the way to Dabin's house and was waiting in front of her bedroom door.
- [ Dabin: Transparent... sticky... urine? ]
- [ Dabin: 'Ugh! What is this! I wet the bed at this age?' ]
'Hmm... So it was true.'
A reaction that wouldn't happen if her memories were fully inherited without knowing arousal fluids.
They said that in cases of events a regressor couldn't handle, it was judged as damage upon regression, causing memory loss.
Well. It doesn't matter.
In this playthrough, my goal isn't to ravish Dabin.
Looking at how soaked she was to begin with, her body seems to remember to some extent.
'Come to think of it..'
A remark I heard in passing in the past came to mind.
'Did they say family is the only target from whom you can expect unconditional love?'
It was a remark that stuck in my memory all the more because I had never received unconditional love.
As it happened, one of Dabin's driving forces for regression was her yearning for family.
There is nothing more horrifying than having something you originally possessed taken away from you.
Especially the more precious what was taken away is.
'Shall I go with this... concept?'
Siblings who both possess regression.
Proceeding on a grand journey to recover their lost family, with each other as their pillar of support.
'Shall I sprinkle in a special little sauce here?'
There was a fact I hadn't told her because I was afraid Dabin would worry.
That was when I was plotting it.
- [ Dabin: 'Striking the final blow together with Doyoon-oppa...' ]
- [ Dabin: 'Then why...?' ]
'Oops. Have my thoughts started spiraling?'
The more one repeated thoughts and found contradictions, the weaker the suggestion's performance became, and once all sense of incongruity was stripped away, one broke free from the suggestion.
Now is the time to solidify the suggestion.
I must become an oppa whom Dabin can rely on.
And to solidify this suggestion, I need to blend it well by combining the information gathered from Dabin.
'Naturally. I must be her one and only precious oppa.'
From now on, immersion is important.
Because a regressor is someone who understands humans inside and out better than anyone else.
If I try to do it half-heartedly, I'll be found out.
I placed self-hypnosis on myself.
From now on, I am.
Dabin's oppa.
'If anything ever happens to Dabin, my heart has to sink to the floor.'
Because Dabin is my precious family who walks with me for a lifetime, no... forever.
Dabin is my companion. My precious younger sister. A younger sister I must protect.
No matter what happens, even if I have to sacrifice my life, she is my sole remaining eternal life companion whom I must protect.
'Dabin mustn't get hurt. She mustn't suffer either. She's a cute younger sister I have to protect.'
Nothing must happen to such a Dabin.
As I thought that, my hand automatically reached for the door knob.
"Dabin-ah! What's wrong!"
When I flung the door open with a beolkeok, I saw Dabin standing stock-still and frozen.
Disheveled hair, a face as red as a carrot.
Holding a blanket wet in the middle with her left hand, and a cell phone in her right hand.
And...
'Naked?'
I stared at Dabin in dumbfounded shock.
"What... is this..."
I am flustered.
Thinking of Dabin's appearance having seizures whenever she regressed after meeting bad endings occasionally, I came into the room, but what kind of mess is this?
Her entire body is soaked in sweat, and she's holding a blanket where she drew a map.
Not quite grasping the situation yet, I asked.
"Dabin-ah, are you okay? What's wrong? Did something happen when you regressed?"
I examined my younger sister's face with a serious expression.
Her face had grown even redder before I knew it. It was as red as a bomb about to explode.
'Why... is she like that?'
Amid countless regressions, weren't we siblings who had seen everything there was to see and things we shouldn't have seen?
"Dabin-ah?"
I spoke, laden with doubt.
"Get out..."
Yet, upon hearing my question, my younger sister even began to budeul-budeul tremble.
Why is she acting like that?
'Could it be she's embarrassed about wetting the bed?'
"Huh?"
"I said get outnnn!!!!"
A smartphone flew towards my face.
I lightly snatched the smartphone out of the air and quickly closed the door.
"Sorry! Our Dabin was screaming so I thought some kind of problem had occurred!"
"You should at least knock before coming innn!!!"
"My apologies! This oppa didn't see a thing!"
"Really? You didn't see anything?"
"People can make mistakes!"
"Kkyaaaah!"
After that bout of commotion, I prepared breakfast.
"Here. Enjoy your meal."
Black bean rice, seaweed soup, kimchi, and seasoned seaweed.
Aside from that, I prepared fried eggs, which Dabin loves.
Dabin in front of me was sitting on a chair in her pajamas with a sulky expression.
"...What is this."
Dabin poked around her rice as if she didn't like it.
'Tsk. Being a picky eater is bad.'
I poured water into an empty cup and said,
"Hm? Ah, it's good for your body. Our Dabin seemed to be struggling a bit."
"Then I'm asking what this is."
Then she picked out the beans one by one and scooped them onto her side plate.
"You know I don't eat beans."
"Dabin-ah, even if you hate beans, it's time for you to eat them now."
"Why? All of a sudden?"
Dabin finally picked out all the beans.
While she scooped a spoonful of rice and put it in her mouth, I poured those beans back into her rice bowl and said,
"That's why you get enuresis from not eating beans."
"Hey!"
Angered that I remixed the beans she had carefully picked out, Dabin threw a tantrum.
I smiled at such a Dabin and said,
"So. What on earth was our Dabin so scared of that she screamed like that?"
"Th... That's..."
Dabin dropped her head low.
"Oppa. Do you know what Female Depravity Climax is?"
"Hururuk... kuheup! Kulleok... keuhp... What?"
Hearing Dabin's words, I almost spat out my soup.
'Female Depravity Climax?'
Where on earth did Dabin, who had never even properly held a man's hand during countless regressions, pick up such lewd words?
"Th... Why ask that? Dabin-ah?"
"Well... because the regression condition suddenly changed."
And then Dabin stared into empty space.
"The regression condition changed. It says if I reach Female Depravity Climax with oppa, I regress."
"Really? My regression condition hasn't changed at all?"
"Huh? Did oppa also have regression?"
When I brought up the topic of regression, Dabin expressed doubt.
Seeing that, I shook my head inwardly.
'No... Dabin-ah. We are each other's only companions who understand one another. The only family!'
Dabin seems to be getting confused about her relationship with me amidst countless regressions.
I must set it straight right now.
Suggestion is an ability that fills in the blank spaces of incongruity in a specific direction.
It shines brilliantly in situations like this.
'Suggestion activated. Kang Doyoon and Dabin Lee are soul companions. Siblings who share memories exclusively within an eternally repeating world.'
Dabin became dazed for a moment.
- [ Dabin: No... ]
- [ Dabin: Oppa is my only family walking the same time as me. How could I be forgetting something this important.]
Then she snapped back to her senses.
"Ah... that's right. Oppa. What caused us to regress in the last playthrough? I don't remember..."
I roughly ruffled Dabin's hair.
"Dabin-ah. That's what happens because you don't eat your beans. How can you forget something so important?"
"Hey! People make mistakes! And why are you messing up my hair!"
Displeased with her ruffled hair, she roughly smoothed it back down with her hand and continued eating.
Dabin glanced up at me and said,
"So? What was the reason we regressed in the last playthrough?"