Chapter 145
Chapter 145
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 145
Chapter Title: Lucky Man VII
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Shin Noah
“…Go Yo-ri?”
No Do-ha frowned.
“…Ah, the one you kept telling me over and over to be absolutely careful of? But how did it get that big…….”
“Physical size doesn’t really matter. It’s probably visible not just from here, but from anywhere on Earth—that red giant tower.”
I glared at the horizon.
“You know those orbital elevators that show up in sci-fi? That thing is bringing exactly that kind of scenery to life. That’s the anomaly it is.”
“Hah…….”
I’d heard the news a while back that Go Yo-ri had crossed over to the Japanese archipelago.
That incident must have snowballed into this disastrous outcome.
“There’s an ocean-scale anomaly in the Japanese archipelago called the Eight Million. Just like Baekhwa Girls’ High School’s school ghost story is made up of a hundred ghosts, the Eight Million is literally composed of eight million anomalies.”
“Damn, that’s a ridiculous number…….”
“Yeah. I don’t know the details, but I’m guessing Go Yo-ri took on the role of ‘the disaster god transmitted from across the sea.’ She probably devoured the Eight Million.”
It was a bad matchup.
Especially the archipelago’s conceptual notion that anything could become a god—it was way too favorable for Go Yo-ri. Hell, if you asked who even had a good matchup against her to begin with, Yoo Ji-won might be the only one.
“You mean she became a god……?”
“At the very least, she’s reached a level where she could claim to be an outer god. Wonder what would happen if she devoured India’s Ganges on top of that.”
Maybe, thanks to me actively bringing misfortune via the hate potion, things had mercifully ended at that level.
With the area right next door dyed pink, there was no way the Korean Peninsula could’ve stayed intact.
“No Do-ha, Workshop Master. I’ll take a quick look around the Korean Peninsula.”
“…Fine, go ahead. No more limbs left to chop off, so you should come back in one piece this time.”
“I’ll do my best.”
I boarded the Savoia S-21 flying boat for a reconnaissance run over the Korean Peninsula.
The craft was a kind of yokai, generated based on the Ghibli animation *Porco Rosso*.
It boasted even stronger defenses in the void than in reality.
It could even resist ‘brainwashing’ and ‘hypnosis’ to a slight degree—thanks to a similar scene in the original animation.
Drrrrrrr—
Unlike the original, this one had been modified into a biplane, and its engine rumbled as it lifted into the air.
An antique with a 50% chance of the engine dying mid-flight. And yet, its survival rate was still leaps and bounds better than on the ground.
“…This is it. It’s done for.”
The Korean Peninsula had been reduced to scorched earth.
The aliens’ ‘Black Great Wall,’ which had expanded from Manchuria, had now devoured the entire North Korean region.
Alien structures endlessly spewing thick black sludge covered everything, with anomalies pouring out nonstop.
-Kyaaaaah.
-Kya, kyaaak.
The aliens’ numbers, which had been just 120 when they first arrived on Earth, had now swelled to a zergling horde.
Their forms had changed too. What used to look like armored ‘aliens’ had become even more grotesque ‘alien lifeforms’—something closer to a zerg ultralisk or hydralisk.
Maybe the monster wave and the aliens had fused into one anomaly?
Well, giants pounding on walls and the garrison holding them back combining their DNA was a cliché in its own right.
‘Busan’s… nothing left to even identify.’
The train at Busan Station—Three Thousand Worlds’ hideout—and the National Highway Management Corps’ headquarters building were all destroyed, belching out ominous smoke.
What had happened to Yoo Ji-won?
I’d prepared a protocol for contingencies: evacuate to the Inunaki Tunnel. The Saintess, Lee Ha-yul, Sim A-ryeon, Seo-gyu—the four of them should have memorized it.
“Saintess? Saintess, can you hear me?”
Silence.
No response.
“…….”
Was the Saintess dead, or just playing dead, waiting for me to come down to the surface so she could ambush me? Hard to tell right now.
With misfortune unfolding thanks to the hate potion, nothing could be taken for granted. Worst case, I had to assume she might have fallen as an executor.
Kwaaaaaang!
Gunfire echoed from somewhere.
I tensed, thinking it was anti-air fire, but I couldn’t spot any weapons firing anywhere.
It was just like the cannon sounds reverberating across Saipan’s beach. All noise, no substance.
Kwaang! Kwaaaang!
The barrage peaked near the Nakdong River. I belatedly realized what war it was reenacting.
The ‘Korean War’ anomaly was playing out across the entire peninsula. In every region, under the banner of ideology, the chill of the axe divided us from them, hunting people down.
But just like Saipan’s beach cliffs, both hunters and hunted were mere actors in the anomaly’s play.
I didn’t spot a single living, breathing human.
The Undertaker Backdoor Net was offline too.
‘Maybe, from everyone else’s perspective, my existence as a regressor was one massive stroke of luck?’
The thought crossed my mind.
‘In that case, Old Man Show’s repeated deaths must’ve been an equally massive misfortune for everyone. Maybe it all balanced out under the [Luck Conservation Law] without us even knowing.’
-Kya?
At that moment, the aliens seemed to spot me, looking around the sky.
No matter that this flying boat was a yokai, it couldn’t withstand UFOs straight out of a sci-fi world.
I changed course and headed back to Saipan before they could shoot me down.
“Hmm…….”
No Do-ha was sitting in the beach hut.
She glanced at my face.
“Well, you made it back more or less intact…….”
She brewed coffee using beans she’d brought from the Busan escape, then handed me a cup.
And she didn’t ask a thing.
I was always grateful for her silence.
For the record, No Do-ha brewed coffee that tasted truly awful, despite her looks.
12
I’ve been spinning these tales in as upbeat a tone as possible, but let me confess honestly to you all.
In the 590th round, my mentality took quite a hit.
No, ‘quite’ is too tame. It got seriously rattled.
‘Did I use the monkey’s paw too rashly?’
Of course, I had a goal I absolutely had to achieve, so I tested it out.
A couple episodes from now, it’ll come up, but there was an anomaly that was near-impossible to exorcise without the monkey’s paw.
But at this point in the story, that was just future talk.
Before my experiment proved meaningful, the 590th round left me mentally cornered in every way.
‘Right. This anxiety is one of the emotions bringing me misfortune.’
And so I let go.
Normally, I’d have pulled out all the stops to patch up my mentality. Like guiding the aliens encroaching on the Korean Peninsula over to the Japanese archipelago for a once-in-a-lifetime matchup: Go Yo-ri vs. the aliens.
But in the 590th round, I was doing my utmost to become as unfortunate as possible.
Which meant I tormented my own mind.
‘Even if it was all part of finding a way to deal with outer gods, relying on the Luck Conservation Law was idiotic. This disaster’s on me and my choices.’
‘Should’ve at least warned my comrades ahead of time. No, wait. O Dok-seo ended up with her mind eroded anyway. Would’ve been the same.’
‘Would it? For example, the Saintess has a far more solid mental world than O Dok-seo. If I’d explained my goal and intent—’
‘Savior anomaly, monkey’s paw, hate potion—three anomalies interfering to cause this. Even the Saintess couldn’t fight that off.’
‘Still, it was the right thing to do as a human. Can’t deny that.’
‘But if I’d stepped up to do the right thing, it might’ve invited [even greater misfortune]. If my comrades got warned but still fell under the anomalies’ mental sway…….’
‘Shouldn’t have done it.’
Regret. Self-recrimination. What-if fantasies.
The notion that relentlessly drives humans into misfortune is always that thought: ‘I shouldn’t have done that back then.’
A genius at mental management was also a genius at mental destruction. I tortured myself with expert skill.
Every now and then, I’d take the flying boat around the ruined world, repeating to myself, ‘All of this is the result of my wrong choices.’
“…….”
No Do-ha quietly watched me do it.
Truth be told, if I’d purely wanted to become as unlucky as possible, I should’ve cut her loose too at that point.
But I couldn’t bring myself to chase No Do-ha out of that beach hut.
That’s when I realized the 590th round me had been unconsciously relying on her.
‘Yeah. Even in the unconscious world, I couldn’t bear to see the Workshop Master No Do-ha corrupted.’
Incorruptible.
Maybe she had a trait like that hidden away?
So maybe she was immune to the effects produced by the hate potion?
—Objectively speaking, that was unlikely.
If No Do-ha truly had [mental immunity], she should’ve been fine against Go Yo-ri’s brainwashing too. We’d never observed that across multiple rounds.
‘But maybe, limited to the hate potion, she’s more resistant than others.’
At the time, though, I eagerly indulged in the delusion.
‘The hate potion might’ve had some effect I didn’t know about. Like, the more the Workshop Master No Do-ha hated me, the more friendship she felt toward me instead.’
‘Otherwise, would she have proposed we leave together right after stepping down as Corps leader? Was No Do-ha ever the type to make that kind of offer on her own?’
Delusions. Delusions. More delusions.
Somewhere deep in my heart, at the bottom of human psychology, I fed raw meat and juices to the desire engraved there: [I want to rely on someone too].
The Native American proverb was spot on. The human heart is a starving wolf—the more you feed it meat, the stronger it grows.
My heart grew into a wolf fattened on misery.
‘Ways to utilize the savior anomaly. Verifying the monkey’s paw and hate potion. And on top of that, the Workshop Master No Do-ha’s trait.’
‘That’s plenty gained from the 590th round.’
‘To begin with, I started this one thinking of it as half a vacation round.’
I grew much gentler with No Do-ha.
I used our limited rations to whip up delicious meals. As No Do-ha herself had said back in the 100th round, my cooking skills were at the level of a four-star Michelin chef.
Even amid the cannon fire and screams filling Saipan, I scouted out a perfectly nice walking path and strolled it with her.
In short, I was deploying every means at my disposal to hold onto her goodwill.
“Hmm…….”
For all my mental thrashing about, No Do-ha didn’t add a word.
No.
“The coffee’s delicious again today…….”
If anything, she grew kinder.
Her once razor-sharp barbs softened bit by bit. Even her trademark ‘heu’ sneer somehow turned gentler.
She volunteered for cooking lessons from me, claiming she wanted to learn, and chatted idly with me on our walks.
Petty daily routines. Simple pleasures.
With my mind cornered with nowhere to cling, it was only natural that it latched onto No Do-ha’s small kindnesses.
A year passed.
By then, No Do-ha was my one and only supplier of happiness.
“Good night, Undertaker Awakener…….”
“Ah, yeah. Good night to you too, Workshop Master.”
I went to sleep in the hut’s bedroom like always.
And when I opened my eyes.
“Ah.”
No Do-ha’s voice came from nearby.
“Oh my. You’re awake……?”
A little too nearby.
No Do-ha was straddling me. I felt her heavy weight.
“You could just go back to sleep, but…….”
I couldn’t.
Kkuuuk—
The spot bearing most of her weight was none other than my throat.
Former civil servant. Workshop Master. Corps leader.
No Do-ha, who’d called herself my accomplice, was throttling me with full force while faintly smiling.
13
“……, …….”
I worked my mouth.
My opponent was No Do-ha. The one who’d come dead last if you ranked Awakeners purely by combat power.
If I wanted, I could’ve shaken off her hands right then.
But the jet-black eyes staring down at me from inches away were telling me something.
“Ah, please don’t resist…….”
Her lips were saying it too.
“It’d just make things messy. The moment you muster your aura, I’ll end my own life. You wouldn’t want that……?”
“……!”
“Well, you could chop off my limbs and leave me unable to even attempt suicide……. Heu. But I doubt you’ve fallen that far.”
No Do-ha’s weight bore down harder on my windpipe.
Cough. The last air in my throat bubbled up.
I tried to move my limbs, but it was no use. For some reason, the prosthetic leg and arm she’d fitted me with wouldn’t budge.
“Wha, t……?”
“Ah. Sorry about that. I rigged them a bit when I made them.”
“…….”
“Oh. Those eyes are asking when. Well, with your life nearly over anyway, I’ll tell you. Undertaker Awakener. Right from that day in Busan’s bunker, when the Awakeners were causing chaos…….”
No Do-ha grinned.
It was the truest smile I’d ever seen from her—pure poison.
Her venom flowed from her eyes down through her hands, invading my airway.
Kkuuk. Kkuuuk.
“When you deliberately chose to become unfortunate, I worried about something a little different. Whether a being like you could even ‘become unfortunate enough’ to begin with…….”
Pressure.
“You’re the type who finds joy even in the smallest things. You must’ve worked hard to become that kind of person. I can only imagine how hellish a regressor’s life must’ve been…….”
Crushing.
“Your mental barriers are solid—impenetrably so. If we assume the earthly task is to tear them down, then me sticking around the Korean Peninsula and ruling the National Highway Management Corps wasn’t ideal…….”
Pressure.
“So I quit…….”
Yoo Ji-won was competent.
But her competence peaked as a deputy.
The moment she took the helm of a massive organization, her tendency to treat every person and thing as a tool was bound to cause problems.
The National Highway Management Corps, forced to compromise with countless guilds, must’ve started rampaging under her.
Baekhwa Girls’ High School’s guild leader, Cheon Yo-hwa—who’d have no equal on the peninsula—venturing out alone across the sea was just one omen.
No Do-ha had seen it coming.
“If the organization you so carefully planned and nurtured—if the Korean Peninsula—fell into utter ruin, it would’ve given you a hefty dose of misfortune…….”
She didn’t stop there.
“The Three Thousand Worlds guild leader and the others just tried to beat you down blindly, but in my eyes, that one-dimensional attack wouldn’t hit you hard. Ah, of course it’d hurt a bit, but not a decisive blow……. That was my chance.”
Chance? What kind.
“Undertaker Awakener.”
No Do-ha leaned in closer.
Eyes like an endless well.
Pitch-black pupils, without a speck of light, stared down at me from inches away.
“—You ruined my life.”
Whisper.
Right in my ear, No Do-ha murmured.
“I just wanted to live quietly and die quietly, but you dragged me into the National Highway Management Corps, made me struggle to save the world……. 500 times? 600? Heh. How many more times do you plan to make me miserable……?”
“…….”
“You bastard.”
The poison seeped in.
“Undertaker Awakener. I hate you. Hated you from before, and I’ll keep cursing you forever. If you feel even the slightest guilt for ruining my life and fate…….”
“…….”
“Die here at my hands.”
My body trembled.
Whether from the thinning oxygen or No Do-ha’s black poison, I couldn’t tell.
-Kkkigigigik! Hic! Kkigik!
The monkey’s paw wailed from thin air.
The hut’s rafters collapsed toward No Do-ha, the monkey’s paw thrashing to eliminate the root of my misfortune.
I mustered my aura and shattered the rafters to dust without a sound. At the pulverized wood, No Do-ha let out a small laugh.
My vision was fading.
In it, I saw No Do-ha lean her head in a bit deeper.
“How is it……?”
No Do-ha whispered.
“If it’s murder by my hand, would that be misfortune enough for you……?”
I wanted to laugh bitterly.
It sure would.
But with no strength left to move my lips, I met my end in a vision as pitch-black as No Do-ha’s eyes.
That was the cause of my 590th death.
14
There’s a short epilogue.
To cut to the chase, the monkey’s paw didn’t chase me across regressions to collect its debt.
The ‘misfortune’ that Workshop Master No Do-ha gifted me at the end must’ve carried enough weight even for the paw.
Yeah.
The [Luck Conservation Law]—which could’ve grown into an anomaly surpassing ocean-scale threats—was safely exorcised.
“……? What’re you staring at?”
“Nothing.”
I debated telling the 591st round’s No Do-ha about the previous round but dropped it.
I had a hunch she’d end up hating me for real if I did.
No need to invite misfortune in this round too.
“Hmm……?”
No Do-ha, watching me from her desk in the distant office, tilted her head.
She stood, walked right up to me, furrowed her brow hard, and peered up at me intently.
“Why the sudden act?”
“…Hmm. Undertaker Awakener. You look a bit balding right now.”
“Pardon?”
What nonsense was this.
“Balding? Haven’t lost a single hair across 591 regressions. My scalp’s perfectly healthy.”
“Is that so? Then it must be my mistake. Heu. Still, you’d better watch out from here on…….”
Ten years passed.
Looking in the mirror, M-shaped acute balding was bombing my scalp, just as No Do-ha had warned.
“…….”
As if this was the final collection on your remaining misfortune debt.
-Ukkgik.
Let me emphasize once more.
Anomalies are dangerous.
-Lucky Man. End.