Chapter 209
Chapter 209
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 209
Chapter Title: Infinite Regressor Spins a Yarn
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A wild Outcast God has appeared!
The world (once again) is doomed! Everyone, run for your lives!
…Such reactions didn't emerge anywhere.
Instead, it was calm.
In most people's perception from the start, the anomaly grading system was neatly sorted into five categories: Ocean-class, Continent-class, City-class, Village-class, and Lesser.
Even if I suddenly made a fuss here, saying, 'Have you heard of Outcast God-class anomalies? They're insanely strong! They beat down even Ocean-class anomalies!' people would just respond dryly, 'What's that, you otaku?'
It wasn't much different for the members who'd joined the Regression Alliance.
"I-is an Outcast God really that strong?"
Sim A-ryeon asked. She'd just rushed over after getting my summons and finished healing Fairy No. 264, so sweat was pouring off her.
"Why is it only Outcast Gods that are called Outcast Gods in the first place? The other anomalies have such straightforward names like Village or City... 'Small Outer God' feels off somehow. It's like it doesn't fit the pattern, you know?"
"Don't be like that, Miss Sim A-ryeon..."
Surprisingly, No Do-ha chimed in as if defending me.
"You mustn't dare question the naming sense of His Excellency the Duke of Black Books, the supreme dignity of the Library Academy and absolute black curtain. Okay? He might vanish without a trace..."
"G-gasp! Sorry, Guild Master! I always think your naming is perfect! Y-your sense is the best!"
"......"
Entirely unsurprisingly, No Do-ha was picking on me.
For reference, in dating sim terms, No Do-ha was a sub-character whose affection was fixed at Lv. 0 no matter who went after her, but (and this was the truly astonishing fact) she allowed exactly one person Lv. 1 affection.
Sim A-ryeon.
The reason? Simple. She could heal broken limbs with her healing power.
Not because of good personal chemistry or matching MBTI types—nothing ordinary like that—just purely because of actual healing power, she clicked with Sim A-ryeon.
That's right. To win over No Do-ha, you didn't need anything else; you just had to become Heo Jun.
For reference, in real-life games, the human affection cap is Lv. 100.
Figure out how to conquer the remaining 99 levels yourselves and kindly upload it to SG Net.
"'Outcast God' doesn't mean 'small outer god'—it's '疏外神,' the god that estranges this world from humanity."
"H-huh...?"
"It means 'god from outside our world.' Originally, it was a term Karl Marx used often. In English, 'alienation' is translated as such, which resonates with 'alien'—as in extraterrestrial. I named it to capture even that nuance—"
"W-what's that supposed to mean, otaku?"
"......"
"Aaah! As expected of the Guild Master. Y-you're so tasty. The Guild Master's aggro tastes the best in the world..."
Hold it in. Me.
My Patience Blade isn't meant for cutting humans. No matter how much I doubt if Sim A-ryeon is truly human, our DNA sequences are 99.97% similar.
Now I get why the world ended. Embracing such unscientific material as the basis of life means getting curb-stomped by anomalies.
"A-ryeon. There are many reasons Outcast Gods are scary, but one is that their 'patterns' evolve in an instant."
"Evolve...?"
"Yeah. For example, with Meteor Shower, failing the first subjugation doesn't cause big problems. Its pattern of 'falling from the sky' is unchanging anyway. You just regroup and try again. But Outcast Gods immediately patch their weaknesses."
It was still far in the future in the 267th round, but the reason I twisted my whole body desperately when subjugating the operator of All Phenomena Playground was this.
No matter how many one-two punches or light jabs you throw, you can't accumulate damage on an Outcast God.
One hit.
Only one exquisitely honed spear thrust can pierce an Outcast God's oily belly.
That's the trickiest part.
My style—accumulating攻略 data layer by layer through endless regression—is completely opposite to the regressor's patented method.
"I'll show you an example directly. Hey, Comrade No. 264. Feeling better?"
"Huek... I nearly departed for the afterlife but barely survived..."
Fairy No. 264 answered feebly. Maybe because her body had been bisected earlier, her already small frame looked even tinier.
"Call the other fairies and have them enter the 'Backside World' the same way. This time, I'll bring Sim A-ryeon and the others too."
"Hoe. Got it..."
Me, the Saintess, No Do-ha, and Sim A-ryeon entered the dream simultaneously.
And we even managed to reach Seoul Station Square in reality—that is, the entrance to the [Backside World].
"Uh, huh?"
However. This time, a transparent 'glass' barrier stood between us and Seoul Station Square, preventing entry inside.
"I can see it, but I can't get in...!"
Thump thump.
Sim A-ryeon tapped the glass with her small fist.
Not just Sim A-ryeon—the Saintess even unleashed her transparent aura at max output, hacking at it with hand axes.
But the 'glass' didn't have a single scratch.
Pedestrians in Seoul Station Square walked over the glass without a care.
It was so close—just a little stretch away—yet the glass divided the worlds, preventing any interaction.
Just like the afterlife and the real world can't interfere with each other.
"See? The Outcast God blocked the passage."
"Eeeek."
"Nut probably didn't anticipate I'd enter its domain through dreams."
To explain again, the domain Goddess Nut had constructed was 'this world and the next.'
This Outcast God had the authority to 'designate' which was which.
That's why it defined Kim Joo-cheol's phantasm trapped in the crystal tombstone as Valhalla—the afterlife—and went further, designating the reality we live in as hell.
And beings living in hell have almost no way to interfere with this world—Nut's domain.
Almost.
"But tales of experiencing the afterlife through dreams are common everywhere. Thanks to me recruiting the Tutorial Fairies, this 'dream-entry route' was opened, but from the Outcast God's perspective, it found a flaw and blocked it immediately."
"E... Th-then how do we enter again?"
"Hmm."
Tap. I lightly knocked on the glass—the boundary between the afterlife and this world.
Not just a simple knock—I infused it with aura to create vibrations. My steel-gray aura hummed, but the glass didn't budge.
This too is a tricky aspect of Outcast God-class anomalies. Blindly pushing with brute force won't work.
Though it could just be my power falling short.
"For now, I've named this Outcast God 'Nut.'"
"Nut..."
"It's a goddess from Egyptian mythology. She governs the night sky—that is, the cosmos—and rules the daily cycle."
Whenever Nut destroys the world, the night sky unfurls.
But this night sky pulses like it's alive, with veins throbbing. The Milky Way turns into crimson and emerald blood vessels surging, or sunset light drips like blood.
"In original Egyptian mythology, the night sky is Goddess Nut's body. Ancient people looking up didn't think of it as an endless universe."
"Then what?"
"They imagined a transparent membrane covering the night sky."
"Ek? H-how...?"
"They saw stars not as 'orbs floating in space' but as 'holes pierced in the transparent membrane.' They thought the world breathed like humans do, with stars as breathing holes, and starlight poured out each breath."
"Eh? Ah... Starlight as the world's breath..."
"So, the Pythagorean school, influenced by Egyptian mythology, claimed that stars' movements produced 'the world's breathing sound' like a song echoing everywhere. Humans just can't hear it."
"Wow..."
That's why the inside lid of pharaohs' sarcophagi holding mummies was painted with the 'night sky.'
Turning the sarcophagus into a 'miniature universe' for the mummy.
Especially, the starlight was meticulously carved—those star holes, 'the world's breathing pores,' allowed the pharaoh's soul to come and go.
"G-Guild Master! You suddenly seem so knowledgeable! I didn't know you knew more than just memorizing Three Kingdoms characters' names uselessly..."
This brat...
"Hey, you punk. I'm originally erudite on anomalies. I was a support-type Awakener like you and studied my way up here—studied."
"Ah, back to boomer mode..."
"What, punk?"
"Gyaaaaah! N-no violence!"
Tears welled in Sim A-ryeon's eyes as I put her in a headlock.
"S-so, the passage is blocked—how do we cross to that side...?"
"Hmm. For starters, since it bases itself heavily on Egyptian mythology, becoming a mummy should let us cross."
"A mummy?"
"Yeah. To become a mummy, you have to remove the brain. Egyptians thought the brain was unimportant; people think through their hearts."
"Eek! That means dying!"
"Shall our A-ryeon volunteer as humanity's representative to become a mummy?"
"N-nooo...! Goryeo Jang is supposed to endure that, not you, Guild Master...!"
At that moment, the Saintess raised her hand.
"Undertaker."
"Yes? What is it?"
"If this Outcast God Nut has the authority to define the afterlife and this world, and designated our world as the afterlife... especially a 'hell' where souls suffer."
The Saintess tilted her head.
Her water-blue hair rippled lightly.
"Then, beyond people suffering intense déjà vu from the regression virus, wouldn't various phenomena occur? You know, truly hellish things."
"......"
Ah.
We hurriedly returned to reality.
And outside, hell was unfolding in full swing.
-Uwaaaah!
-S-stabbed! I got stabbed by a sword!
First, on Busan's Gudeok Mountain, swords sprouted instead of trees, slashing at people.
The swords weren't just planted—they multiplied and retracted in real time.
The 'tree-swords' were spreading from Gudeok Mountain's foothills to other trees downtown.
-Save me! Please, get me out of here!
-Ugh, uh. Uwaa, uwaaa!
Babel Tower Square, swarmed by protesters earlier, had its stone pavement collapse into a massive bubbling soup.
People thrashed in the boiling molten metal. Their skin melted and burst repeatedly, yet bizarrely regenerated instantly, looping drowning and burning endlessly.
This 'boiling molten metal' was also showing signs of spreading bit by bit from Babel Tower Square to other areas.
"G-Guild Master...!"
My comrades faced this scene from the rooftop of National Highway Management Corps HQ. They couldn't hide their panic and turned to me.
"I-it can't be! We were only away for a moment...!"