Chapter 168
Chapter 168
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 168
Chapter Title: The Gu Jar Airplane
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3
-…….
-…….
It was chilling.
A dagger plunged into my chest.
This wasn't mere metaphor. The vast majority of the Undertakers gathered here had reached the realm of the Heart Sword.
Formless blades crisscrossed this way and that along their lines of sight.
Of course, no one present was the type to die from a few sword strikes. Any feeble Undertaker like that had long since become a bowling ball, rolling tumbleweed-style down the airplane aisle.
If they went ahead with "verbal swordplay" like this, victory couldn't be assured against such masters!
Having reconfirmed that none of them were pushovers, the Undertakers finally laid hands on their sword hilts.
- Verification through the Saintess is no longer possible.
- What a pity.
- It's about to get even more pitiful. Sorry, but I have no confidence living in a world where Go Yo-ri exists fifty-one times over.
- No. I'm more terrified of a world with fifty-one No Do-has running the management corps. Got it? Even a single chokehold means instant strangulation.
- Fifty-one Sim A-ryeons would be no joke either. SG Net would be done for that very day.
Tension hung in the air.
A fierce battle of glares and mind games unfolded between the regressors.
The moment anyone drew their sword, it would erupt into a life-or-death showdown—a standoff on a knife's edge.
“Everyone, hold your swords.”
At that moment, I—the most righteous, upright, and proper original Undertaker—opened my mouth.
The other counterfeit knockoffs all turned to look at me in unison. Among them were the mustached knockoff and the female knockoff.
-What is it? Asking to be killed first?
“No, I've thought a bit deeper, and killing each other isn't the smart play.”
-Why?
-Lagging behind?
“You know full well that kind of provocation has zero effect. Anyway, this is no different from a meticulously laid trap. If we dive into a slaughterfest now, calamity will strike down the line.”
A few Undertakers tilted their heads.
-Calamity?
“Yeah. Let me ask this first. Does everyone know about the ‘Gu Jar’?”
Gu poison.
A very famous curse. Think of it as an ancient Pokémon tournament.
First, the shaman carefully selects venomous insects and fills a jar with them.
Then, seals the lid and declares the Battleground championship open.
The tournament continues until only a single bug remains alive.
The final champion that has hunted and devoured every other pest. A legendary venomous insect.
-Who here doesn't know about that?
“Listen up. If we start slaughtering each other, what happens? Naturally, only the strongest Undertaker among us survives.”
Under their focused gazes, I continued.
“The instant that happens, we've defined this airplane as the ‘Gu Jar’ ourselves.”
-……!
“The last survivor would naturally gain the attributes of a ‘bug’ and ‘venomous insect.’ One day, you might wake up from bed having turned into a bug.”
Sighs leaked out here and there across the plane.
-Certainly, there's logic to it.
-Hoo. A true dilemma!
-If the plane lands like this, the anomalies will double in number. But if we start killing each other, we end up defining our own existence as bugs. What do we do?
-Hold on.
The female Undertaker shot her hand up.
Her hair was tied back long, and her looks were like a cocktail of one-third Dang Seo-rin, one-third No Do-ha, and one-third Saintess. She was also the only other person here besides me dressed in barista attire.
For reference, she had single-handedly sliced the necks of about twenty other Undertakers.
Her combat prowess was probably on par with mine. A figure to keep a close eye on, in many ways.
-I get the logic that killing each other turns it into a Gu Jar. But is gaining a bug attribute really that dangerous?
“What a foolish question. Not knowing the dangers of bugs? Surely your worldline never had the Giant Potato Robot Saintess Statue erected in Busan?”
-Huh? Giant pota—what?
Ah, they don't know.
I scanned my surroundings with a pitying gaze.
Everywhere were half-baked Undertakers.
“I'll explain, so listen closely. The potato robot Saintess is—”
A FEW MOMENTS LATER…….
A few moments later……
-Bullshit!
-My God. That actually happened?
-My Saintess would never!
Pandemonium broke out aboard the plane.
Of course, it was hell just for the Undertakers. The Dang Seo-rins wore expressions like “Saintess? Who's that?” and “Who the hell dared erect such a blasphemous statue in my turf of Busan?”
Ignorance truly is bliss.
“Anyway, bugs are dangerous. This is an anomaly clever enough to devise such schemes and traps on a plane. Nine times out of ten, there's an ocean-class anomaly behind it—maybe even a lesser outer god.”
-Ah, aah.
-I get the danger of bugs now……
Right. If you don't want to wake up as “Gregor” one day, steer clear of bug attributes on your own.
-So, what do we do?
The female Undertaker, finally regaining her wits, spoke up.
-107th. Like you said, landing is fucked, and killing each other is fucked too…… Isn't it already over?
I shook my head.
“No. There's one method.”
-What method?
“The reason the Gu curse takes hold is solely because the bugs trapped in the jar slaughter one another.”
I infused my voice with energy so everyone could understand.
“Therefore, if the bugs don't fight each other—and yet only one bug remains—the anomaly's curse falls apart. The prerequisite itself collapses.”
-……?
-Ah.
A few Undertakers blinked. I had to wonder how they'd managed as regressors with heads like that.
On the other hand, there were the quick-witted “me”s.
The female Undertaker fell into the latter category.
-So, we just suicide. Until only the last one remains.
“What?”
Dang Seo-rin, who'd been listening quietly from beside me, jumped in surprise.
“Suicide? You all?”
-Exactly. That's the solution your Undertaker proposed. A way to select the final one without killing each other.
-Aha!
-Brilliant strat!
-Great workaround. We can dodge both the “51 Go Yo-ris” and the Gu Jar.
“No…… What kind of nonsense is this?”
Dang Seo-rin—and the other Dang Seo-rins—looked utterly flabbergasted.
Meanwhile, the Undertakers exchanged covert glances with me. Convinced looks all around.
Though they'd walked different life paths, possessed different appearances, and even different levels of intellect—
Any “Undertaker” inevitably kept one possibility in mind at all times.
The chance that they themselves might someday mutate into an anomaly.
The worst possible route.
If that route loomed, an “Undertaker” was prepared to erase not just their life, but their very existence.
“Now we'll determine who among us is the most capable Undertaker. By force, intellect, rhetoric, whatever it takes. And the losers……”
-Will recognize their own shortcomings and step aside, yielding the Undertaker mantle to the victor.
“Exactly.”
-Fair enough.
The Undertakers declared.
-But one issue.
-There's a problem.
-I'm fine handing things off to another Undertaker and bowing out. There's always a new loop waiting after death.
-But what about Dang Seo-rin?
The Undertakers' gazes turned toward their respective partners.
-What are your plans for Dang Seo-rin?
-If you're thinking of taking her out after we're gone, then no matter what, I won't suicide.
An ominous atmosphere spread in an instant.
But I casually shook my head.
“No. No need to worry about that.”
-……?
“Because once you're gone, Dang Seo-rin will be left alone.”
I gripped Dang Seo-rin's hand firmly. I could feel her glancing at my profile, but I kept my focus on the Undertakers.
“But to begin with, Dang Seo-rin didn't just want a trip. She wanted a trip ‘with me.’”
-…….
“So, once you're gone, the Dang Seo-rins will naturally vanish too. Trust me.”
Silence flowed.
Then, someone spoke.
-Let's trust you, 107th.
He was me as well.
4
Parallel worlds. Possible worlds. Multiverse.
The philosopher known for first proposing such concepts is Leibniz—the same guy who feuded with Newton over who invented calculus first (not that test-takers care).
Less famous than calculus is his idea of the “best of all possible worlds.”
-Our world is the single ‘best world’ among all possible worlds, and thus the only one that exists.
Why do we live in this worldline and not some other?
In other words, why does the world we inhabit happen to be “this way”?
-Because our universe is superior to all other worldlines.
The best world.
All other worlds are fundamentally flawed in some way. Physics might collapse, or evils beyond imagination might arise.
Even if our world feels like shit, it's still the only place where “cosmic failure” hasn't occurred.
-I lose.
And so, we—the Undertakers—embarked on the task of selecting the “best world.”
-You're a cut above me. You were the first to think of using the Saintess's telepathy—and the risk of nearly falling into the Gu trap. I should step aside.
The Undertaker who claimed to have boarded on the fifty-sixth try accepted his exit with equanimity.
He took the hand of the fifty-sixth Dang Seo-rin.
-Sorry, Dang Seo-rin. Looks like the trip will have to wait. I'm truly sorry.
-It's fine. Just being together was enough.
Then, an astonishing scene unfolded.
The fifty-sixth Undertaker and Dang Seo-rin embraced and naturally shared a kiss.
“Eek.”
“Uh.”
Both the original Dang Seo-rin and I were taken aback. What on earth was this shameless display in broad daylight?
Seeing someone who looked exactly like yourself kissing someone who looked exactly like Dang Seo-rin stirred an utterly bizarre emotion.
-Huh?
But the truly shocking part was something else.
Out of over a hundred passengers, the only ones “taken aback” were us two.
-Why the surprise?
-Yeah, what's wrong with a kiss?
Indeed. All the other Undertakers and Dang Seo-rins seemed utterly unfazed.
But the even more shocking revelation was this.
-What's wrong with a couple kissing?
-Right. Sure, restrain in public, but aren't you “us” anyway?
-We've seen it all by now—good, bad, and ugly. A mere kiss is nothing.
Every single Undertaker and Dang Seo-rin gathered here was dating their counterpart.
Everyone except us two.
“Good lord.”
“My God.”
In a word, this plane was a charter flight for a group couples' trip.
The other Undertakers and Dang Seo-rins had planned this overseas vacation to celebrate their 1st, 3rd, or 10th anniversaries, respectively.
Everyone except us two.
My scalp prickled. How could this be possible?
-No, why are you the surprised ones……
-You really aren't dating? Me and the Undertaker?
-Why? Why on earth not?
If anything, those couples reacted as if we were the incomprehensible ones.
-If you're not dating, then why are you even on this trip?
“Uh. Well……”
“I just said I wanted to go on a trip.”
The even more original Dang Seo-rin explained.
“We talked about the trip and left two days later. Right now.”
-Two days? To that terrifying Uyuni Desert? Just because? And you're not even dating?
“Yeah. Any issue?”
-Huh……
The Undertakers and Dang Seo-rins stared at us like we were some freakshow.
-Aren't you two the abnormal ones?
I didn't bother answering that.
Despite this little sideshow, the work of selecting the “best world” progressed steadily.
The tests took many forms.
-I'll settle it with the sword. 107th. If you're stronger, I'll cleanly yield this life.
Sometimes, it was raw power.
-In the end, knowledge is what matters most to a regressor. Especially methods to grow allies and exterminate anomalies. 107th. Let's compare our knowledge.
Sometimes, intellect.
-Even a sword that cleaves the earth or a brain that mocks the heavens is useless the moment your mentality crumbles—you'll be devoured by an anomaly. 107th. Just how long can you hold onto yourself?
Sometimes, mental fortitude.
-I'm not into dragging things out like the others. Luck. Pure luck. Let's just flip a coin. 107th. Heads or tails?
Sometimes, sheer chance.
-Was Jiang Yu's repeated northern expeditions in Romance of the Three Kingdoms truly the right call?
Sometimes, it was just Three Kingdoms trivia…… Wait, are you really okay with that? Your Dang Seo-rin is glaring daggers at you.
In any case.
The fifty-odd Undertakers each demanded a contest in a format they could accept.
I overcame every single challenge.
In the end, there was no “me” stronger than I. The fact was bittersweet yet also a point of pride.
-……So in the end, it's my lot as the regressor to decide which world is best.
The female Undertaker gave a wry smile.
All the other regressors had accepted their fates. She was the last “me” remaining.
-I thought I'd lived diligently enough, but even that fell short of my best.
Uniquely, the female Undertaker had challenged me to Go.
A human game whose top spot had long been yielded to AI. A genre that tests just how well you can mimic AI's calculations—stamina incarnate.
Thus, the perfect stage for evaluating perfect memory ability.
Across countless loops, I'd “memorized” endless Go game records. For me, Go was little more than a game of deploying memory.
In essence, she'd challenged me to see whose memory processing was superior.
A field—and virtue—arguably the most vital for any regressor.
The two sides were evenly matched, impossible to call.
The result.
-Well played.
“Learned a lot.”
A half-point victory for White.
My narrow win.
-Sorry, Dang Seo-rin. Looks like the Oxford trip will have to wait.
-It's fine. We can always go “next time.”
The female Undertaker's partner smirked.
-But are you really okay with this?
-Me too. It was a convincing outcome. And above all, learning that the “me”s in other possible worlds are striving just as hard is reward enough. I won't lose to you.
-Didn't you just lose?
-From here on out.
The female Undertaker took her Dang Seo-rin's hand.
She turned to me with a faint smile.
-I'm entrusting this world to you, 107th. We probably won't reunite for eternity. If I'm truly human and not some anomaly, I'll go back to my world and make sure to gift the Saintess some sunglasses.
Her entire body was enveloped in aura.
That marked the end of an Undertaker.
5
There is an epilogue.
By the original travel plan, we should have flown via Spain to South America.
But for some reason, shortly after all the Undertakers had exited the stage, the plane arrived at its destination.
The Uyuni Salt Flat.
The world's most resplendent mirror.
-Ah.
The plane landed softly atop the water's surface.
There wasn't the slightest vibration.
Its wings parted the desert's limpid waters as they submerged. A long water trail stretched behind the tail.
By this point, a fair number of “Dang Seo-rins” still remained. Some had followed their Undertakers in death, while others refused to leave the corpses' sides.
The airplane door—which had no flight attendants or pilots—swung open. Sunset light reflected off the desert waters seeped into the cabin.
-Pretty.
-Yeah. So pretty.
-I think I get why I wanted to come here.
-How can the world be this beautiful……
Srrk.
……just from reflections?
The Dang Seo-rins couldn't finish their words.
The moment the outside sunset touched them, their bodies turned to white salt and crumbled away in an instant.
The pristine powder was swept away bit by bit on the desert wind.
Nor were the Dang Seo-rins alone. The Undertakers' corpses, the shattered seats, and finally the plane's massive frame itself—all collapsed into white.
Like flower petals.
Before long, only Dang Seo-rin and I remained in the center of the desert lake.
“…….”
“…….”
Dang Seo-rin blankly gazed up at the dance of white petals.
Each petal reflected the sunset's crimson glow, and those reflections' shadows were in turn mirrored on the horizon.
In a world of endless repetition, the warmth where our palms touched was the only singularity.
Only much later did Dang Seo-rin murmur.
“What really was that anomaly, Undertaker?”
“Such……”
“Skip the ‘that's what an anomaly is’ line.”
“Hm.”
I gazed out at the salt desert formed from the remains of Dang Seo-rins and Undertakers.
“A mix of factors, no doubt, but the most obvious guess is the Uyuni Salt Flat itself.”
Dang Seo-rin tilted her head. Her reflection on the water below did the same.
“Here? Why?”
“When the water rises, it becomes one massive mirror. You know mirrors are the most dangerous thing in the Void. We came to Uyuni, but we ended up entering a ‘mirror world’ too.”
“Ah.”
“Airplanes are vehicles that take you to ‘somewhere else.’ Ours just took a detour through the mirror world.”
“I see…… Yeah, that tracks.”
Splash.
Dang Seo-rin whipped her foot across the water's surface. Droplets arced up, capturing her smile in their facets.
“Either way, it means my Undertaker is the best Undertaker, right?”
No need to answer that one.
“This place is amazing. Thanks, Undertaker.”
“You're welcome.”
“Oh, right. So how do we get back to the Korean Peninsula from here? The plane just melted.”
“…….”
That, I truly couldn't answer.
Just note for the record that swimming the Pacific takes at least three months.
-Traveler. End.