Chapter 63
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: The Returned World
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The battle with the Universe Squid dragged on far longer than I'd imagined.
My attack power wasn't enough to pierce its defenses, and none of its strikes could touch me.
It was an endless cycle of pursuit and evasion, attack and counterattack.
Whenever it closed in, I'd slip into the Grimoire to escape, break free of its line of sight, and bolt again.
Like a merry-go-round spinning forever.
Unfortunately, time wasn't on my side.
The universe was contracting even faster now. The squid's sluggish attacks were coming at me with noticeably higher frequency than before.
"Kuooooh!"
Why was it thrashing around like that? It even seemed strangely frantic.
Humans don't chase someone down with that kind of obsession just because something they owned got taken.
Honestly, from the viewpoint of simple rage, was it really worth going this far?
Of course, people say they'd hunt thieves to the ends of the earth over a stolen new RAM card or graphics card, but couldn't this squid just regenerate its Star Force anyway?
"...Am I being too selfish here?"
Fair point. If someone stole the fortune you'd spent your whole life saving, you'd pursue them until death. It's a matter of survival, after all.
...What if?
What if this squid was in a similar spot?
I sought the answer in the contracting universe.
I'd started viewing the universe as a single domain. And I had evidence for it.
I'd already observed the existence of the outer universe.
Let's say the squid's domain encompassed the universe including the Earth I lived on, while outside lay the realms of higher beings like the Wanderer.
To the squid, this contracting universe was its survival zone.
Imagine the entire cosmos as one vast canvas where godlike entities play territory games, carving out their own universes to dwell in.
Wasn't this domain some kind of inviolable territory?
If invasion were possible, the Wanderer wouldn't have given me the Grimoire and cooked up this convoluted plan.
It could've just acted as it pleased.
Besides, why entrust immense power to a mere mortal like me without knowing how I'd wield it?
No matter how I used that power, it must have rigged the board to create outcomes favorable to itself.
'Just a hypothesis.'
What was certain was that the squid's perpetual motion machine was already broken. And I'd stolen its power source.
Assume the universe's contraction stemmed from the same issue with that machine failing to loop infinitely.
In that case, to the squid, I wasn't just a target for venting rage—I was an existential threat.
Its domain was shrinking in real time, after all.
"Kuuuwaaah!"
Am I right?
No solid conclusions, of course. I could only trust the reasoning I'd pieced together while evading it for so long.
But now, I was truly out of time. Time for all-out war or another approach.
One lingering question: What happens if Alex eats the regression candy in this total mess?
Would a doomed Earth revert to one brimming with Star Force again?
The Earth itself would probably return, even if the Star Force didn't.
The candy likely couldn't transcend the domains of divine beings.
Proof: Neither I nor the Universe Squid were affected by the regression.
What about the Star Force, then?
It probably remained constant too.
The regression candy was just one tool for the squid to accumulate more Star Force.
After all, climbers ascending the Tower had to complete their journey to finalize the perpetual machine.
I saw it as a failsafe mechanism.
So, what if he eats the candy in this botched state?
'Almost there.'
I could see it now. I was nearing a sort of 'correct answer.' No guarantees, but it held up logically.
So, I'd put it into action.
As I pondered, the universe's boundary appeared in the distance.
I'd nearly reached the edge of the contracting cosmos.
"Kueh!! Kuwaaah!"
The squid noticed too and grew even more agitated. That frenzy lent more weight to my hypothesis.
It was time.
I instinctively sensed that crossing into the outer universe would be dangerous.
There had to be a reason even gods respected each other's borders.
We had to settle this now.
I glanced at the squid.
Hmm... Yeah, direct confrontation seemed impossible.
All-out war: scrapped immediately.
I poured every last drop of Star Force I had into the Grimoire.
Even the final handful, soul-tangled as it was—still, the Grimoire and I remained distinct.
As I'd predicted, the pursuing squid hesitated for a moment. But then it charged again.
More precisely, toward my Star Force-infused Grimoire.
I flung the Grimoire wide open, creating a 'gate.'
"That's right! In here."
The squid lunged straight into my Grimoire.
——Boom!
With immense pressure, it began forcing its way inside.
'Me'? I couldn't handle it.
But my Grimoire? More than enough to swallow it whole. It was a fragment of the Wanderer, after all.
Ugh.
Tearing at the stable gate I'd crafted, it shoved its head into the Grimoire.
I'd hoped to slam the book shut and slice it apart, but no dice.
Space didn't bend that way.
In the end, it successfully wormed through the narrow entrance.
Click.
I snapped the Grimoire shut. To keep it from escaping.
I felt the squid god enter my soul.
Around now, Alex was probably cursing my name.
***
Alex spotted the colossal squid and had no choice but to swallow the regression candy.
The squid, fixated on the artificial sun, suddenly turned toward me.
Normally, the crowd would've drawn blades and mobbed me, but not this time.
The phenomenon where all humanity turned hostile the instant the candy was eaten had vanished.
'It's different from before.'
I had no idea what had changed. But it had.
What exactly was different?
Alex couldn't figure it out. He could only guess that Moon Byul had altered something.
Had the squid turned hostile? He scrutinized it.
Sure enough, it was staring right at me.
I felt its gaze.
Stories often claim that beholding an unbearable god makes your eyes burst and brain melt, but reality wasn't so dramatic.
I simply knew instinctively that the entity in my sight was a god.
Our eyes met.
Thankfully, the Universe Squid didn't charge at me.
But...
'Is that bewilderment?'
Eye contact might seem trivial, but it's a potent form of communication.
Not just between humans—even with animals, locking eyes lets you read emotions words can't capture.
I met the squid's gaze and glimpsed fragments of its thoughts.
Bewilderment.
Why? How? The sentiments flowed in through its stare.
I had no answers.
I was just carrying out the task given to me.
'Whew.'
Click.
Heavy.
The revolver-shaped artifact I'd gotten from America for self-defense.
I pressed the barrel to my mouth and closed my eyes.
The metallic tang hit my tongue. Channeling mana, I generated a bullet inside.
Slowly, I rested my index finger on the trigger, bracing for the next regression cycle.
At some point, death stopped scaring me. For a regressor, death isn't the fear.
Failure is.
But this failure felt heavier. I even wondered if regression might fail entirely.
Thinking I might truly die made my hands shake.
Thud.
I gripped the gun with both hands to steady them.
Such doubts were pointless now.
Hadn't I resolved, from the moment I hatched the plan, to trust that half-god playing at being human despite its lack of silver tongue?
This situation was clearly the Plan B he'd described.
'Eat the candy and kill yourself.'
No one asks that of another person. Even regressors can't die on a whim.
Death had simply become another tool at my disposal.
'If I fail, find another way. With luck, we might meet in the next cycle.'
Meet again? What if it was already dead outside the Grimoire?
No way to know if the Grimoire's master perished—the book would endure.
But its failed terraforming attempt was clear enough.
"Fuck..."
Moon Byul, you bastard. Think suicide's easy?
There's a next time after death, sure, but it doesn't make it painless, you damn monster.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed in my mouth.
The pain was over in a flash—like a startling needle prick.
What lingered unpleasantly was the vivid sensation of the bullet punching through my brain and exploding out the back of my skull.
But that brain could no longer function, so no issue there.
My consciousness soared toward the next brain.
***
Five years had passed since I became a lost soul in space.
"Cold."
I could no longer enter my Grimoire.
More precisely, with the squid rampaging inside, I dared not open it.
Even now, it was devouring every speck of Star Force within, rampaging wildly.
The master of my universe had become my prisoner.
Thanks to that, my true form had shifted from a Wanderer-like mass of Star Force to something closer to a pure spirit body.
The silver lining: The squid had practically shredded the entrance, so I no longer needed to dive in periodically like before.
I couldn't unfold the Grimoire for fear it'd burst out. Effectively, I'd lost all my magical abilities.
On the surface, I'd fully escaped the Grimoire.
'Reality's cold now, though...'
Memories surfaced. Back before I handled Star Force, when I'd first become a space castaway.
My current plight mirrored that time perfectly. Trapped in the Grimoire as a space orphan.
For five years, I'd been searching for the regenerated Earth.
I'd fled too far; returning to those coordinates was a slog.
Unable to use the squid-trapped Grimoire, I could only crawl along as a spirit body.
The squid's domain was gone. Bereft of its perpetual machine and designer, the universe had been swallowed by the outer cosmos. Whether the Wanderer claimed it, who knew.
A domain shift doesn't erase the space itself. Like territory in a game of go-stop, it'd just passed to another.
My plan seemed to have succeeded.
No other lifeforms in the Grimoire. Alex had regressed successfully.
Familiar light appeared.
"The sun."
My homeworld came into view.