Chapter 132
Chapter 132
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 132
Chapter Title: Doomsayer IV
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Shin Noah
5
Let's talk about Old Man Show.
Flashback. An incredibly distant past.
In a very far-off time, during the 21st iteration, I had once set up a drinking party on a sky-blue overpass bridge and shared a heart-to-heart drunken conversation with Old Man Show.
"Salt Jar. What do you think the world will be like after we die?"
"After we die?"
Old Man Show and I were probably the only two regressors left in this world.
That was why we occasionally got excited discussing topics that "only regressors could truly obsess over." Just like right now.
"Well... at the point when both of us are dead... I mean, maybe the world regresses along with us when we regress. Time gets rewound."
"And if that's not the case?"
"Pardon?"
"Maybe the world keeps going even after we die."
"No, that doesn't make sense, does it? We wake up right after dying. How could the world keep existing?"
"Listen carefully."
The old regressor's theory went like this.
――――――――――
A. [World After the Bad Ending] Hypothesis.
Explanation: Even if the regressor dies, the world doesn't regress. Time continues until the universe itself ends.
Only after perfect annihilation arrives does the world "roll back." A server reset. But for some reason, the memories of Old Man Show and me—the regressors—remain preserved without being initialized.
――――――――――
"Ah... So subjectively, we feel like we wake up right after dying, but objectively, we only open our eyes after the world has already perished?"
"That's right. In this case, our ability wouldn't really be [Regression] so much as [Memory Preservation]. And conveniently, you the doctor already have Perfect Memory, so it fits nicely, doesn't it?"
"Oh..."
"There's another hypothesis too."
――――――――――
B. [Parallel Worlds] Hypothesis.
Explanation: When the regressor dies, their consciousness and memories transfer to a "different parallel world."
It might look identical on the surface, but the world they lived in before and the one they're in now are completely separate.
The differences between the two worlds simply haven't been observed by the regressors.
――――――――――
"If the parallel worlds hypothesis is correct, maybe we should call our ability [World-Line Shift]."
"That's a perspective I've truly never considered before."
"That's because your head is empty as usual, Salt Jar. You ignorant fool. You really need to learn something. You call social democrats commies, you constantly mock German history—what a poorly educated mess you are. You're a failure as a human, a failure in personality, a failure in character."
"Doing a sneak attack with slander here...?"
"I support the parallel worlds hypothesis."
I blinked.
"Uh... why?"
"Because does it make sense that the entire world—the fabric of time itself—regresses just because two pathetic humans die?"
Old Man Show swirled his soju glass.
"Isn't it far more plausible that just our two consciousnesses shifted to another world? Right?"
"Hmm."
Listening to Old Man Show, I felt an inexplicable unease somewhere deep inside.
As Old Man Show said, if "rewinding the world's time" was absurd, wasn't "shifting an individual's ego and memories to another parallel world" equally ridiculous?
Assuming countless parallel worlds exist might actually be theoretically more burdensome.
"Then the world we were originally in... all the 'parallel worlds' we've gone through so far... they've all perished, haven't they? We're just wandering from one new world to another, having left behind homes that have already vanished."
"Exactly! We think we're endlessly retrying to save the world... but in truth, the humanity of all those worlds is already dead. The anomalies won."
Reflecting on it now.
As is typical with drunken ramblings, Old Man Show's tirade lacked consistency.
Suppose Old Man Show truly believed in the [World After the Bad Ending] or [Parallel Worlds].
Then wouldn't he have cherished his life even more?
If it wasn't simply rewinding time to regress, but truly countless worlds meeting their end...
Then Old Man Show's and my lives carried a weight "equal to the entire world."
Every time we failed, a world perished.
Yet Old Man Show soon went on an extended vacation.
Why?
Did it mean he trusted me that much? That even if he gave up, I wouldn't?
Or was his lover far more precious than a world we'd burdened ourselves with?
One world versus one love. Between the two, the latter was inevitably heavier.
The drunk old man staggered.
"What a goddamn world, Salt Jar. I really... really don't understand why this happened. I don't get it."
"Ah—old timer. Get up already. You'll get lockjaw sleeping here. Jeez, this guy always relies on his Heavenly Martial Body and acts like this."
...It was as if the old man before my eyes was a Sherpa desperately piling an even heavier load onto shoulders already burdened.
It was the double bind chosen by the captain of a sinking ship.
Survival Strategy A. I can't run aground here. Because if I fail, the world ends.
Survival Strategy B. But even if I do run aground here, there's nothing to be done. Because this ship is loaded with far too much cargo for one mere human to bear.
That's right.
Old Man Show was undoubtedly cornering himself precisely so he could make excuses either way.
"Sorry, Salt Jar... Sorry..."
"No, what the hell, now this German geezer's mixing in a dialect with his diction. I'm going insane. Maybe I should just gas him."
"You crazy, racist bastard..."
"That frame doesn't work when a white guy uses it on an East Asian, no matter how high you're flying."
In the 21st iteration, I was still young. I couldn't read Old Man Show's psyche.
So even as I supported the drunken old man's body, I couldn't support his heart.
If I'd had a bit more experience then. If I'd encountered a few more anomalies...
I would have told that era's Old Man Show.
In a cold voice.
'Old timer.'
'Whether it's [World After the Bad Ending] or [Parallel Worlds], true or false—it doesn't matter right now.'
'Because they are all voids, all anomalies.'
6
End of flashback.
Let's rewind the perspective a few thousand years.
The reunion with Old Man Show in the unconscious world had been the worst.
"Ah. Guild Master, he's spotted."
Go Yo-ri muttered, but there was no need to kindly notify me.
Old Man Show was swinging a steel pipe wildly, and his strike was rapidly closing in.
"......!"
A Sword Master's strike was faster than sound.
Have you ever seen the Milky Way etched like a faint jewel in the night sky?
Come visit a pollution-free, fine-dust-free clean apocalypse—you can see it every day.
And you could witness it in Old Man Show's aura too.
Kwarrr rumble!
The "night sky blue" aura charged in a straight line, slicing through the building debris in its path as if they were mere annoyances.
The decisive reason Old Man Show was called the Sword Saint. Because his blade contained the Milky Way and starlight.
The roar from collapsing buildings echoed out several beats slower than Old Man Show's attack.
Only after I barely drew Do-ha to deflect his strike did that tremendous aftermath batter my ears.
"Crazy...?"
My hands went numb, my whole body shook. My entire senses wanted to vomit.
A single strike.
In the 261st iteration, just blocking one attack made my heart sink. For me, who lived off aura rather than martial arts, it felt like my MP had been halved in an instant.
Suddenly, Seo-gyu's soul possessed my chest. The words "you motherfucker, stop cheating" slipped out automatically.
"Fuck, you weren't originally this strong!"
"......"
"No matter that this is the Void and you're an anomaly, the original you no-showed from the 25th iteration onward—how the hell are you this strong?"
Old Man Show was expressionless. Probably because turning into an anomaly had degenerated his pea-sized brain wrinkles along with his facial muscles.
-......, ......, .....
Old Man Show's lips kept moving, mumbling something nonstop.
Thanks to time with Lee Ha-yul, my lip-reading had advanced to a high level. Even from this distance, I could roughly decipher what Old Man Show was pronouncing. Germans had always been vulnerable in the 'wiretapping' department since World War II.
The eavesdropped result was this.
-Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele.
This crazy bastard.
The sword demon raised the steel pipe again.
The aura emanating from the old timer's fingertips made the hairs on my neck stand up in unison, crowing like roosters. At this rate, regressor chicken would end up on the old timer's dinner table tonight.
"Huh."
In that moment, I came up with a brilliant idea.
I grabbed Go Yo-ri, who was standing there blankly in spectator mode, and shoved her out front.
"Eh?"
"Yo-ri, let's be friends!"
An ancient forbidden technique passed down on the Korean Peninsula. Friend Shield.
Fleeing recklessly here would risk pursuit from that fallen regressor, the anomaly called "Emmett Schopenhauer."
So why not aim for mutual destruction instead?
As a guardian of human civilization, I always respected the Code of Hammurabi. An eye for an eye. An anomaly for an anomaly. An old no-show for Go Yo-ri.
If I could subjugate even one of the regressor anomaly or the brainwash beam anomaly, it'd be a win for me! Why quibble over methods?
"......"
Hesitation.
Old Man Show, who had poised himself to unleash a barrage, stopped.
I clenched my fist inwardly.
Even Old Man Show had to hesitate before the ultimate brainwash beam. I'd rolled through 261 iterations with no counter and avoided it—how could a fresh young old man strut around?
"Um... Guild Master?"
"What? I'm busy right now. Don't talk to me."
"But I think you should know."
Go Yo-ri, reduced to a human shield in my left hand, spoke with a troubled look.
"As you know, Guild Master, people perceive me as their ideal type—the one they feel the most affection for, right? So... to that grandfather who got that ending... who do I look like?"
"......"
Ah.
-AdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdeleAdele.
A "night sky" unfurled around Old Man Show.
In the latest trend terms, domain expansion. Considering the old timer's age, it was a unique barrier.
Old Man Show's tremendous aura extended from his feet, dyeing the ground and sky. Suddenly, in the ruins of the city under broad daylight, a night sky descended.
Killing intent transcending sword aura.
The martial prowess innate to the human Emmett Schopenhauer. The pinnacle of that potential.
A realm of distant transcendence I'd never witnessed even in Old Man Show's prime in reality, unfolding right there.
"If he were rationally sane, he wouldn't equate me with his beloved wife... but in that fallen 'ending' state where he's lost his reason... um. This is awkward for me too..."
"Release your brainwashing!"
"Ahaha, Guild Master, come on. It's a passive skill—I can't control it. But this is serious. It's like his beloved wife got kidnapped by a criminal. Ah, of course, thanks to that, you and the Guild Master became friends, so that's good."
I immediately hurled Go Yo-ri as far away as possible, into the distant sky.
"Ehhh—?"
Whether her origins were North Korean or not, Go Yo-ri flew like a missile. If only she'd explode at the end to stay true to her roots.
Naturally, the no-show anomaly's gaze shifted from me to the Yo-ri missile. The ultimate romantic old timer tossed the steel pipe aside and leaped toward Go Yo-ri.
My one and only opening.
I bolted immediately. As the protagonist of an infinite regression tale, I must never miss a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
-Adeleeeeeeee!
Rumble. Boom. The city was being destroyed in real time.
Old Man Show's anguished scream echoed from far behind, but it was none of my business.
Please live happily together—.
-Adele.
In that instant, I sensed a presence beside me.
No time to look. Slash! Something cut through my protective aura like tofu and dropped to my neck.
'Ah.'
I tumbled forward at full speed.
My head soared into the air, allowing me to barely glance sideways.
Old Man Show, whom I'd thought I'd distanced far away, was now right beside me, running "alongside." Blood stained his hand.
A strike at point-blank range. One chop with his hand, and my head was off.
Go Yo-ri was clutched to Old Man Show's side. She gave a wry smile as she looked at me—or more precisely, at my head's escape attempt.
Sensation faded. Sound, consciousness—rapidly receding.
Better this way. What more would I see sticking around? Old Man Show kissing Adele-Yo-ri?
I wanted to at least move my mouth.
'No, this is really too much.'
At the same time, it felt just like the early iterations long ago, my youth as a regressor.
Back then, I didn't have to charge toward doom alone. The most reliable dealer's back was always in front of me.
See? Old Man Show's potential was top-tier after all.
If he could fully bloom that monstrous talent—not in this bad ending, but in reality too—old timer, the two of us could surely conquer this "goddamn world"—.
Thud. There, my consciousness plummeted to the bottom.
The sensation of death wasn't much different from a dream.
Fade to black.