Chapter 130
Chapter 130
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 130
Chapter Title: Doomsayer II: Shin Noah 3
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Someday, to all of you who will read my biography, I strongly recommend this.
Build good relations with the Tutorial Fairies as much as possible.
I, being an immature regressor, ended up hacking away at each other with the fairies, bursting heads and piling up chains of hatred.
But there's no need for you to wade into such a quagmire.
"Hic-hic-hic. The operation to purge the reactionary guerrilla hiding deep in Comrade Secretary-General's unconscious brain folds... starts now...!"
"Good. I leave it to you."
The Tutorial Fairies were truly excellent anomalies. Their speech was bizarre, and aside from distorting history by grinding humans in the tutorial mill, they could communicate with Homo sapiens just fine, right?
As long as you didn't start off with 'What the hell is that bullshit, you bastard!' as your greeting from the very beginning, you could leave a good impression on a fairy anytime. In fact, even with humans, you should avoid such greetings.
The fairies scampered over and surrounded me. I counted heads: sixty-four of them had gathered.
"First, to enter the unconscious, you must relax body and mind above all and get a good night's sleep!"
"Mm."
I lay down on the bed. Snug. The fairies formed a strong circle and took hold of my left and right hands from both sides.
Fairy-fairy-(me)-fairy-fairy.
It looked like that if drawn out.
Thirty-two Tutorial Fairies each linked up on my left and right.
"Now, we're inviting Comrade Secretary-General to our fairies' hometown. If you have a song request, please let us know!"
"Song request?"
"Ho-e. To enter the dream demon's territory, we need just the right, cute lullaby...! If no request, [Twinkle Twinkle Little Star] is selected as the default BGM!"
[Twinkle Twinkle Little Star] was traumatic because of the Meteor Shower, so I requested [Island Baby].
Then the Tutorial Fairies held hands and swayed their shoulders side to side.
"Mommy under the island shade—♪"
"Goes off to chop wood—♪"
"The baby left alone—poops and—♪"
Hold on. Were those the lyrics to [Island Baby]?
"ZZZ......"
Before I could question it, the fairies' song scooped me up whole and plunged me into sleep.
Blink.
I opened my eyes, and the scenery had changed. Just moments ago, I was definitely lying in the hideout bed, but now my cheek was stuck to a cafe table in the old Baekje Hospital building.
Under the table lay Old Man Show's corpse.
The fairies were still gripping my hands tightly. But the eight gates golden chain formation of 32/32 had halved exactly to 16/16.
"Oh...? Hey, this would be an instant remedy for insomniacs. No Do-ha the corps leader's always complaining about sleep deprivation; if I call her over..."
"The sea calls out—♪"
"The song of doom—♪"
"ZZZ......"
I fell asleep again in the dream. As my consciousness sank into pitch darkness, I thought.
Doesn't something like this appear in the movie <Inception>?
Blink.
After that, I repeated dreams within dreams. Each time, my consciousness dove deeper into darker unconsciousness, deeper sleep.
From the hideout to the cafe, to Dang Seo-rin's VVIP train compartment, to Jamsu Bridge convenience store, to Baekhwa Girls' High School......
"Huh? Vice Guild Leader, you—."
Sometimes, characters in the dream recognized me and widened their eyes.
Even the 'Guild Leader' from a very long-ago regression turn, that is, Dang Seo-rin, was startled to see me.
But the lullaby didn't stop.
"Chop the neck slooowly—♪"
"Sleepiness comes over—♪"
Deeper. Deeper still.
Dream within a dream.
To the abyss of the unconscious that no normal human could ever become aware of, and even if dreaming, could never remember.
"—Sunbae?"
"Hyung-nim."
"Gi, Guild Leader......"
"Oppa."
It was an endless fall.
The human relationships, memories, essence of the man called the Undertaker scattered bit by bit, falling apart.
Like a beast being butchered in a slaughterhouse. Like a wooden doll being carved away in a sculptor's palm.
"Humanity sleeps soundly—♪"
"Don't wake while sleeping—♪"
"The baby's crying sound."
"The soul shakes."
Blink.
Each time I entered one layer deeper into the 'dream,' the number of fairies decreased. 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2......
Finally, one.
"Ho-e-e."
Fairy No. 264. The first Tutorial Fairy I'd met in life held both my hands.
The fairy, sculpted in 2D deformed style in reality, wore an expression just like >_<);;
"Hieek.... Oh my god! You did amazingly well!"
Shake shake! As the fairy shook her head side to side, deformed sweat drops flew off.
"Comrade Secretary-General's unconscious is so solid—too solid!"
"...Really?"
"Hiek. In the long dream demon life, I've never seen a human with such an unconscious structure! Comrade Secretary-General has no distinction between 'present' and 'past' at all. Everything is present right before your eyes, and the capacity is thousands of years worth! A structure no mere mortal could endure......! As expected of the steel Secretary-General leading us!"
"Mm."
As a human, I found it hard to grasp the impression that my 'unconscious was solid.'
I could only guess that my [Perfect Memory] was giving the fairies trouble.
How to put this.
Unlike others, my memories didn't blur. Excluding those before the 4th turn, that is.
From my perspective, thousands of years had already passed since it became this way, so these 'memories as vivid as if right before my eyes' felt familiar.
That was also why Old Man Show had envied me sincerely.
For that old coot, his wife's face and voice fading was his life's greatest regret.
I'll mention more about this unique symptom of mine later.
"Anyway, good work. So this is the bottom of my unconscious?"
"Hic-hic-hic. Yes! Without being a highly skilled dream demon like us, reaching here is truly impossible......! It's the overachievement project born from the heroic will of revolutionary heroes!"
I looked around.
Busan Station concourse.
In some sense, it felt very me. My personal birthplace is elsewhere, but for the 'Regressor' Undertaker, this was the only home.
My origin point. A sense of volume identical to reality drifted somewhere in the empty concourse air.
"Doesn't feel like a dream at all."
"Of course. This place isn't just Comrade Secretary-General's personal unconscious—it's practically humanity's 'collective unconscious.' For humans, it's a phenomenon essential to survival like air or water....... Reality before reality, transcendental structure, surreal!"
"Collective unconscious? That's Carl Jung's concept. You guys know that too?"
"Hic-hic-hic. Thanks to Mugan, we accessed all human knowledge and got crash courses!"
"Ah."
"Anyway, you must be very careful here, Comrade Secretary-General. What surrounds you now isn't simple physical reality, but humanity's unconscious itself......!"
Even saying that, the fairy didn't let go of my hand. Just like when the Fairy Lord showed me Mugan's domain briefly before, it meant this place was really dangerous.
"In this place, laws of time and space mean nothing!"
"Same as the Void?"
"Not just the same—it's the Void itself!"
She was the type whose speech sped up when talking about what she knew well, and Fairy No. 264 was like that.
"In some sense, dreams are the great Void that first blankets every human......! Luckily, this concourse is the 'most familiar place' in Comrade Secretary-General's mind, so we could use it as base camp."
"Base camp, huh."
"Yes, so once we leave here, no matter what, don't let go of my hand! Comrade Secretary-General. In emergencies, to activate the emergency escape protocol......"
It was then.
Thud—
A low heel sound echoed in the concourse. For a shoe heel striking the floor, it was excessively resonant. Like a village church bell.
Beyond the radius where the fairy and I stood, the concourse was shrouded in darkness. So the source of the footsteps slowly revealed itself from the bottom up.
Thud—
Black loafers. White stockings. A purple skirt covering down to the calves below the knee. But lightened of its characteristic heavy pressure by white pinstripes.
"Huh?"
Pink hair.
"Amazing."
"......"
"Fancy meeting you here, Guild Leader?"
Go Yo-ri.
Go Yo-ri was smiling brightly.
My heart jolted.
My aura surged faster than my pulse. The moment I drew aura through my whole body to sever Go Yo-ri's neck in one go.
"—Hoet?"
Boom!
The weight gripping my left hand suddenly lightened drastically. I turned to see the fairy's head torn clean off her body.
Splatter. The fairy's flesh fell to the floor belatedly, like a song with offbeat rhythm.
The forearm of Fairy No. 264 in my hand dangled limply, cold. It seesawed once, twice, three times, then stilled.
Instant death.
A dream demon exhibiting omnipotent power greater in dreams than reality had been instantly slain in that very dream.
"......"
"Ah, sorry. But it was so nice to see Guild Leader after so long that I got carried away....... Really sorry—."
No time for talk.
I drew aura at full power. Kicked off the ground.
Passed by Go Yo-ri, and the sensation of her neck exploding under my single flash transmitted through the staff-sword to my hand. More explosion than slash, a 'boom' sound followed a step late.
Compared to the Ten Tribes battle, I'd grown a lot. I didn't even utter 'Did I get her?' or check; I just kept running.
In short, I fled for my life.
"—Aha."
And yet, before running even 300 meters, I faced Go Yo-ri again right before me.
Thud!
The head-on collision sent Go Yo-ri tumbling backward flat.
Go Yo-ri gave a wry smile as she rubbed her nose.
"Ow, ah....... Sorry, Guild Leader. I wasn't looking ahead. Ahaha. I'm a bit scatterbrained, you know."
"......"
I immediately fired aura straight up.
An inverted lightning bolt pierced the Busan Station ceiling. Sky visible. Gathered aura at my soles and kicked off.
Treading the void.
A feat only I, having honed aura to the limit at this point, could show.
"The weather's nice."
Go Yo-ri sat on a cloud.
"......"
"Aren't the skies a bit clearer than the ground if you avoid the Void? Ah. Guild Leader, care for some boy tea?"
Using the cloud as a bench, Go Yo-ri swung her legs alternately. Next to her sat a thermos and teacup, prepared.
I released void-treading midair and plummeted. Kwarang! The instant I crashed into the ground, I poured all my power into digging. Into the ground, underground.
I was a single drill, and our drill was the drill that pierces the earth.
"Dear me. Look at me. Guild Leader prefers Ceylon tea over boy tea."
At 600 meters underground, Go Yo-ri was unearthed, holding Ceylon tea in both hands, beaming.
"......"
"Ah. Were we playing hide-and-seek just now? Then....... Was I it? Guild Leader, found—you. Ahaha. Is this how it's done? First time since childhood, so a bit embarrassing."
God Buddha Allah Shiva Maria Jesus Christ! Please!
No choice. I activated the final emergency escape protocol 552-71: 'Red Cliff Pansori.'
"Unexpected gale whooshes ru-ru-ru! The wind roars fierce, so Zhou Yu hurriedly descends tong-tong-tong to the main camp and looks at the flags..."
"Eh-mer♪ Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise respond, northwest gusts whoosh, in an instant southeast gale rises, tents rip whoosh♪ Squat♪ Blast shields rumble rumble♪"
"......"
"Ahh, thunder rises, Zhou Yu sees this and his guts drop♪"
Boom—
Where'd she get the hourglass drum? Go Yo-ri struck the mallet skillfully. It was masterful, on par with me who'd been professionally taught Red Cliff by a pansori singer in a vacation turn.
"Huh. Guild Leader, not continuing? I practiced a lot to sing this with you......"
"......"
The ends of Go Yo-ri's eyebrows drooped downward.
Only then could I face the cold, harsh reality.
Yes.
I was fucked.
Pretty badly, too.