Chapter 205
Chapter 205
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 205
Chapter Title: Valhalla
-----------------------------------------------------------------
3
There had been plenty of times when someone entered a gravestone under [Time Seal] with me in tow.
Take Kim Ju-cheol, the soccer player—hadn't he gone in with his daughter, Kim Si-eun?
But this was the first time I'd revealed the scenery inside a gravestone to someone as close as the Saintess.
"—Here we are."
She glanced around. The Saintess looked about, still holding my hand.
"So this is it. The paradise where the happiest 24 hours repeat eternally, just like I'd heard."
I cleared my throat.
"Paradise might be a bit much."
"From the perspective of Undertaker, the regressor, I suppose it would be. But for ordinary people who have to worry about survival every single day, this is one excellent option."
"Well. Now that casinos are a thing, wouldn't it be far more profitable to ask the fairies for a lucky dream than to undergo [Time Seal]?"
"Even that casino is one of the options you created, Undertaker."
"......"
"It's awfully quiet, though."
As you all know, Kim Ju-cheol's dream took place in a 'soccer stadium.'
The match where he shone in front of his family. The moment he perfectly achieved fame, fortune, and love—he repeated it forever.
Yet the stadium, which should have been filled with the roar of the crowd, was—as the Saintess put it—'quiet.'
" Hm."
A little too quiet.
"Everyone seems to be asleep."
"Yeah. It's eerie."
A world where everyone had fallen asleep.
The people in the stands were all passed out. An eerie silence hung in the air.
It wasn't just the spectators. The players who should have been kicking the ball around on the field had collapsed on the grass.
Among them was the owner of this place—Kim Ju-cheol, the player who had appeared in my dream as a nightmare to deliver a warning.
Reverted to his prime, Kim Ju-cheol lay sprawled, clutching a soccer ball.
"Kim Ju-cheol. Mr. Kim Ju-cheol."
"......"
"Can't you hear my voice? Si-eun's dad. Si-eun's dad."
I tapped his cheek, but there was no sign of him waking. Even infusing him with aura for a full-body massage yielded the same result.
Essentially comatose.
All 10,000 people gathered in the stadium had completely lost consciousness. Considering they were all illusory phantoms, this was true suspended animation.
I made a quick judgment.
"Looks like I'll have to summon the Tutorial Fairy to scan their subconsciouses. And Saintess."
"Yes?"
"Don't let go of my hand, and absolutely do not consume any food or drink here. You might be tempted by the vending machines, but eating even a single thing will curse you due to the Persephone myth."
"Oh......"
We re-entered the gravestone with the Tutorial Fairy. To delve into Kim Ju-cheol's dream using her abilities.
What unfolded before us was an entirely different scene.
-Kya aa aak!
-Save me! Please save us!
The stadium stands were already half in ruins, engulfed in flames.
People were screaming and running amok like mad.
-It's starting again! Another day!
-Someone stop that murderer bastard!
-Uhihihi. It's not like we won't revive after a day anyway—what's the big deal? Kill! Go on, kill me, you bastards!
It wasn't just screams. Blood pooled everywhere.
People brawling with fists, ripping seats loose to use as shields, swinging bats or wooden planks they'd gotten from who-knows-where.
"Don't butt in! Stay in your seats!"
Kim Ju-cheol was desperately protecting his wife and young son. At least the soccer players seemed safe, arrayed in teams.
I took the Saintess's hand and approached the soccer team group. Kim Ju-cheol spotted me and bellowed.
"You there! Don't come closer! I'll kill you!"
"Mr. Kim Ju-cheol. It's me. Undertaker."
"I'll really fucking kil—... Huh? Huh?"
Kim Ju-cheol blinked rapidly.
"J-Jang? Is that really you, Mr. Jang?"
"Of course. Undertaker. Aren't we comrades who survived the Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon together?"
"Ah! Ah!"
Kim Ju-cheol dropped the baseball bat and rushed over, hugging me tightly.
My shoulder was soon soaked. Tears from the young man flowed like those of a middle-aged one.
"W-Why did you only come now! Huh? This isn't an illusion, right? God, why now, you bastard......"
Unsure what was going on, I could only pat his back.
Not just me—the Saintess beside me, the Tutorial Fairy, Kim Ju-cheol's wife, and his teammates all wore expressions of "?" with their facial muscles.
"Calm down, Mr. Kim Ju-cheol. Explain slowly. You were waiting for me? But the memory resets after a day—what could you have possibly been waiting for......"
"1,000 days!"
I froze.
"Pardon?"
"I've been waiting over 1,000 days! Me! Repeating this hellish day over 1,000 times! Not just me—everyone!"
"......"
"T-This is hell! Mr. Jang! Save me, save us!"
My jaw dropped.
What the hell was going on?
4
Rioters numbering in the hundreds and thousands roamed near the stadium, making it dangerous.
We moved to the foothills of Gubongsan Mountain, which Kim Ju-cheol called 'relatively safe.'
Looking back from the hillside, not only the soccer stadium but all of Seo-gu in Busan was ablaze.
"...At some point, I started feeling like I was repeating the same day over and over."
This was Kim Ju-cheol's explanation.
"Then memories of you, Mr. Jang the Undertaker, suddenly came rushing back. Ah, so it was a dream. In reality, I'm already dead, but here I was putting up with this bullshit."
"......"
"But I didn't pay it much mind. It was something I'd accepted myself. Right? Anyway, time would pass, I'd forget that the day repeats, and live on clueless. Or so I thought......"
But the memory persisted.
Even after 24 hours, the 'Continue Playing' button activated forcibly.
"Fuck. No matter how great the memory, repeating the exact same day was enough to make me want to die. You were right, Mr. Jang. Forgetting is a blessing."
Kim Ju-cheol sighed.
"So at first, I tried telling people around me. That the world was looping. That after 24 hours, we'd relive the same day......"
"......"
"People looked at me like, 'What nonsense is this guy spouting?' I felt bad for them, but figured it was natural. Then around the 20th, 30th time? After about a month of repeating the day—"
The anomaly started at the bar he went to with teammates after the match.
"Get this—the bartender suddenly says to me,"
'By any chance, sir, weren't you here yesterday too?'
"That was the beginning. One by one. The bartender, my teammates at the table. Customers at other tables."
'Hey, isn't the TV always showing the same thing?'
'Didn't we meet and drink yesterday too?'
'The snacks taste the same every day.'
"Soon my wife realized it too."
Contagion.
What they called the 'regression virus' began spreading rapidly.
The infection order was probably Kim Ju-cheol himself first, then those in close contact during that day.
And so the day kept repeating.
Even when time reset, the 'regression virus' somehow didn't initialize. The infected spread it further.
-Huh? Was today Saturday?
-W-What's going on? Wasn't this match yesterday?
Bar patrons to their families, players to opposing players, supporters to other citizens.
The 'regression virus' spread like wildfire.
The problem was that it was only a half-baked regression. Merely '24 hours repeating eternally.'
'Mister, this might sound weird, but were you here yesterday... no, the day before yesterday too...?'
'Right? Something's off, huh?'
'Wait, let me call my contact at the station...'
People tried spreading the emergency far and wide to resolve it.
That only accelerated the contagion.
By the 100th day, the virus that started in a small bar near the stadium had engulfed all of Seo-gu.
-Another day starting again......
-What's the problem?
-What the hell is the government doing?
Citizens, centered on officials and police, tried resolving it. They alerted media and the internet about Busan's plight and requested government aid.
They even reached the government.
But it reset after 24 hours.
-Why isn't the government moving? Didn't the professor say Mayor Jeong received a direct promise yesterday?
'W-Well...... Sorry. It seems people outside our group have no idea the day is repeating.'
'Pardon?'
'We know we're looping. Others don't. So promises from 24 hours ago are forgotten.'
Quarantine. Lockdown.
In truth, the 'regression virus' never spread beyond Busan, or specifically Seo-gu.
Only these citizens could notice the 24-hour loop.
Like a city getting fully 'space-locked' during a zombie outbreak, they were 'time-locked.'
-N-No way!
-There must be some way!
Yet citizens still didn't face the truth.
They believed alerting the government would yield a solution.
Leaving behind the old professor who confessed they'd gotten promises from politicians to no effect, citizens devised their own plans.
-We need to make it so big the whole world notices!
'Right! Before 24 hours pass, make the entire nation, government included, aware of how serious this is!'
-H-How?
'Let's riot! Cause a bloody incident to show the world this isn't just rowdyism.'
'Oh......'
'People need to get hurt for the government to act urgently. Media will swarm us.'
'Everyone, steel your hearts and let's go!'
A drastic measure, indeed.
The meticulously planned riot caused massive repercussions. Even casualties.
Busan City was shocked and dispatched police en masse to the civilian bloodshed.
-Uwaaaak! It worked! We did it!
-Look at the TV! The government's announcing! They moved before the day reset!
-We're saved!
-Something's finally gonna happen!
Citizens shed emotional tears, even as blood trickled from their heads or while being dragged away by police.
They thought they'd escape hell at last.
But 24 hours later.
-Ah.
-Back again. But now the whole country knows, so it'll work out.
It didn't.
It was the decisive blow.
-...Nobody knows?
'What?'
-The government bastards don't know. About the day repeating......
Yes.
After all this chaos, citizens finally faced the brutal truth.
One. The regression virus only spreads within Seo-gu.
Two. It doesn't infect beyond.
Simple reason.
—This day, the world beyond soccer player Kim Ju-cheol's original range of activity simply 'wasn't rendered.'
[Time Seal] wasn't omnipotent. It didn't build excess data for Kim Ju-cheol's happy day.
It only allocated enough area for him to enjoy it.
Beyond that, the world seemed active with people milling about, but it was essentially illusory 'sketches.'
-What? Why only us looping the day......
-Fuck, what's happening?
Citizens couldn't deduce even that cause.
They only got the result: the same day repeating hundreds, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred times.
Eventually.
-Ah, aaaaah! Aaaak!
At some point, public order collapsed rapidly.
Leaders proposing 'alert the government' or 'start a riot' lost support.
No, the leaders themselves despaired first.
No method escaped the 'repeating 24 hours.' Kill or be killed—everything reset.
-Wait! Calm down! Even if just among us, we can form a society and......
-Shut up! My family's in Incheon!
Attempts to build communities failed repeatedly.
The spacetime rule 'people revive anyway on reset' was too harsh.
Everyone under extreme stress. Fights erupted easily, and killing became trivial.
'Lives' are the bedrock of society.
Long before gold standards, manpower, labor, 'human time' formed society's base.
Morality. Labor. Bonds.
When lives' value plummeted infinitely, homo sapiens society crumbled instantly.
And.
"This is...... Mr. Jang. Maybe, it could be my fault......"
Having witnessed it all, Kim Ju-cheol grew terrified.
"You know. I wished on you for that time thing......?"
"[Time Seal], you mean."
"Ah! Right, right. Yes. After that [Time Seal]...... Maybe others got dragged in too......"
Afraid even faint sounds might reach, Kim Ju-cheol whispered.
His eyes held heavy guilt, self-loathing, fear. Head bowed, he mumbled.
"I-If so, u-usually those end when the cause dies, right......? B-But I've died several times already, yet it still......"
"No."
I shook my head.
"It's not your fault, Mr. Kim Ju-cheol."
"R-Really......?"
"Yes. This space isn't reality to begin with, Mr. Kim Ju-cheol. It's just the last trace you left in the world—a dream."
"...Huh."
"The bartender, your teammates, your wife. None are real humans; they're dream phantoms."
"......"
"There's no fundamental difference between people here and those beyond Busan. Just a matter of how detailed the data renders the phantasm—more or less. People beyond don't notice the 24-hour loop because they lack the capacity to realize it."
Kim Ju-cheol's lips trembled.
"R-Right. Yeah. It was. Yes...... Ha, but Mr. Jang. From my view, they're unmistakably people......"
Then Kim Ju-cheol looked up at me.
And grabbed my leg.
"P-Please save us."
"......"
"Don't abandon us, Mr. Jang. N-No, God! God! You're the creator of this world, aren't you? Right? You promised at first. To let us dwell in eternal happy days. But this. God, this is different. This is hell......"
"Please calm down."
With my free hand, I grasped his trembling one.
"And don't worry. This is my responsibility. I'll definitely resolve it."
"Ah......"
"If we're assigning blame, it's on me, not you. Or the anomaly. And."
I turned to meet the Saintess's eyes.
She understood the implication in my gaze and gave a small nod.
"Thanks to your explanation, Mr. Kim Ju-cheol, I've got a sense of this anomaly's true nature."
Valhalla.
The afterlife where the dead revive endlessly, repeating the same day in slaughter forever.
That was the anomaly descended upon this 'grave.'