Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Prophet I
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Shin Noa
1
Let’s talk about O Dok-seo: web novel otaku, pioneer of nerd fashion, hipster chuunibyou.
As I mentioned in the previous episode, the first time I met this girl was in the 555th regression. No, actually, we’d crossed paths much earlier, but in the true sense of the word, we formed a “bond” in the 555th.
At the time, I had regressed to the Busan Station concourse as usual.
‘Boring.’
And at that point, I hadn’t even picked up my hobby of web novels yet.
No matter how much of a positive thinker I was—someone who’d rank high in a bidding war for the [Infinite Regressor Lottery: Most Positive Life Winner] among all fictional characters—the 555th time hitting this starting point was bound to feel a bit jaded.
Even the world’s most fun theme park would get old after 555 visits, right?
Not to mention that the Busan Station concourse was a severely entertainment-deficient place to call a theme park. The only highlight was maybe looking forward to Seo-gyu’s booming “Fuck, you bastard!”
There was one hidden secret in the concourse, but I’ll get to that later.
‘…Should I try turning on mind reading?’
This time, I decided to add a little spice.
[Telepathy] was a skill I’d acquired in the 554th regression. It let me eavesdrop on the thoughts of beings on a lower level than me.
The “level” criterion was incredibly vague, and the ability itself was far from omnipotent, but for some fun, it was worth using.
[Lee Jae-hee: My phone isn’t getting any signal?]
[Uehara Shino: Too many people. Can’t breathe.]
The moment I activated telepathy, the thoughts of everyone gathered in the Busan Station concourse flooded into my ears. Some voices were familiar, others less so.
[Seo-gyu: Fuck, what the hell is this? Shit.]
[Park Ye-dam: I need to contact the section chief…]
[Lee Baek: What? Where’d everyone else go?]
[Go Yo-ri: A҉u҉r҉a҉.]
[Jeong So-hee: Leader? Leader, where did you disappear to?]
[Sim A-ryeon: Where am I? Who am I?]
[Kim Si-woon: Mom.]
My head spun for a moment.
[Telepathy] wasn’t something I could limit to specific targets. The instant I activated it, the surface consciousness of everyone around converted into language and poured in.
But it was bearable.
And my first impression of using [Telepathy] in the Busan Station concourse was…
‘Nothing special.’
Just the usual predictable thoughts.
‘Well, yeah. They’re all familiar faces.’
I’d already figured out pretty much everything about the original members of the Busan Station concourse crew. Names, appearances, backgrounds, what abilities they’d awaken to later.
So no matter what they were up to or thinking, it wasn’t anything new. I’d reached the point where I could guess their thoughts just by looking at their faces, making [Telepathy] pretty much pointless.
‘Go Yo-ri still doesn’t register, as expected.’
Yeah, I definitely shouldn’t get involved with that kid.
I walked in the opposite direction from Go Yo-ri, as far away as possible. Then I casually bought a drink from the vending machine in the corner of the concourse and sipped it.
People around shot me looks like, “What’s with that leisure in this dire situation?” But I didn’t care.
These drinks would become insanely precious later on. To them, they’d just been summoned to the concourse, but for me, it was returning to a world not yet fully ruined after twenty years.
“Kyaah.”
The Cylon Tea tasted amazing after so long. So good I chugged one can and immediately bought another. After downing four in a row, people stared at me like I was insane.
[Lee Jae-hee: …What? She’s chugging it like it’s delicious.]
[Jeong So-hee: Cylon Tea. That’s downright sacrilege.]
[Park Ye-dam: The young lady knows how to enjoy a drink.]
[Sim A-ryeon: Where am I? Who am I?]
[Lee Baek: What old-fart taste is that?]
Hmm. Lee Baek really hadn’t changed since the first regression.
Even listening again, no particularly interesting thoughts popped up. That’s why [Telepathy] was a double-edged sword.
The anticipation right before using it—wondering what juicy secrets everyone was hiding—got your heart racing. But once you actually heard them, it was just “Eh, nothing much,” and disappointment set in. Paradoxically, [Telepathy] was most fun right before activation.
No helping it. Expecting fresh thinking from the original members at this point was just my excessive greed, an unreasonable demand—
[O Dok-seo: Whoa. Busan Station concourse. I’ve seen this in a novel! Pretty soon, the tutorial fairy will show up and blow that guy’s head off yelling, “Hey, you fucking bastard!”]
—not.
“Pfft!”
I spat out my fifth Cylon Tea into the air. The sunset-colored liquid painted the world in twilight hues just like the can’s design, making people freak out at the early sunset, about seven hours ahead of schedule.
[Lee Jae-hee: Eek! Gross!]
[Jeong So-hee: Gross. Disgusting.]
[Park Ye-dam: Oh no, filthy girl.]
[Sim A-ryeon: Where am I? Who am I?]
[Lee Baek: Fuck, dirty bastard.]
Personalities, tendencies, backgrounds, political affiliations, beliefs—all worlds apart, yet the original members, who’d always shown miraculous compatibility since the first regression, united for once in unanimous agreement. A near-impossible feat, but right now, that wasn’t what mattered to me.
I whipped my head around fast enough to hear the whoosh.
[O Dok-seo: Let’s see. The illustrations were sparse, so hard to recognize… Oh, but I know that guy. Lee Baek! Golden Sun! Man, that dude made the concourse攻略 part a nightmare…]
There she was.
O Dok-seo. Throughout my endless regressions up to the 555th, she was someone who always wore a bored expression, oddly detached from the world. Signature look: dead fish eyes, hoodie, cap.
Someone who, without my intervention, had a very high chance of dying in the Busan Station concourse—a victim. Yet somehow, her dead fish eyes now sparkled ever so slightly with life as she scanned her surroundings.
[O Dok-seo: Yeah, confirmed. This matches the prologue of Jeonhoe-si… Omniscient Regressor’s Viewpoint that I binged all night yesterday.]
Omniscient Regressor’s Viewpoint? Prologue?
[O Dok-seo: So what’s my ability? Status window. Hey, status window. …Status? Open? Ability window? Skill window? Wow. No holographic crap even? This system hates status windows.]
Latest trends? What’s she on about?
“You fucking bastard! What the hell is that bullshit!”
“Hoey.”
Crap. I’d been so focused on O Dok-seo’s thoughts that I failed to stop Seo-gyu’s head from exploding.
‘Sorry! Seo-gyu!’
Fairy No. 264 had scored her first kill in ages. Blood sprayed everywhere, making Sim A-ryeon and countless others scream.
Of course, I just felt like, “Man, how long’s it been?” without any real surprise.
[O Dok-seo: Oh. Tutorial Headplosion Guy cliché, nice. She copies all the old tropes but skips the status window?]
O Dok-seo was the same.
She didn’t panic at all. Calling Seo-gyu “Headplosion Guy” instead of “SG Guy” felt a bit harsh, though.
[O Dok-seo: Anyway. The key in the Busan Station part is securing as many spirit elixirs hidden in Haeundae early on, and nothing else.]
How did she know about the spirit elixirs in Haeundae?
[O Dok-seo: And the noteworthy awakener in the concourse stage is probably Uehara Shino? She’s trash-tier now, but later awakens as an advanced alchemist…]
How did she know that?
[O Dok-seo: The opposite case is Sim A-ryeon. Useless later on, but usable as a healer in the prologue… Oh, she’s running. Right, she’s a coward.]
How did she…? No, Sim A-ryeon becomes useless later?
She’s at her lowest now, but once SG Net opens, she ascends like “The NET world is vast, huh?”—prime talent.
But no time to nitpick details. Like an endless Himalayan honeycomb dripping golden honey, O Dok-seo kept spilling delicious thoughts.
[O Dok-seo: First, build favor with Uehara Shino. Sigh. Not my style to go full original destruction ORI route rampage… but no status window means we’re all beggars. No time to be picky.]
Original destruction? ORI rampage?
As I said before, at this point, I knew nothing about web novels. She was the one who’d proselytize that hobby to me, so naturally, the mutterings in her head sounded like alien gibberish.
[O Dok-seo: But Uehara Shino’s only second priority.]
[O Dok-seo: If I had to pick the single most important person here, no contest—it’s that guy.]
At that moment, O Dok-seo turned toward me.
I sensed the gaze shift ahead of time and quickly looked away. Unaware I’d been watching, she stared blankly this way.
[O Dok-seo: There he is.]
[O Dok-seo: This world’s protagonist. Codename: Undertaker.]
?
[O Dok-seo: Handsomer than I thought… No, maybe the cover art was better? Hmm. Real thing wins? It’s ambiguous. Kinda looks vaguely like the cover.]
??
[O Dok-seo: But don’t judge by looks. Yeah. The Undertaker’s already regressed multiple times, protagonist with no blood or tears.]
[O Dok-seo: Lives only on hatred for monsters, the classic undead regressor… Especially after losing Dang Seo-rin to the Ten Tribes last regression, his rage at the world must be maxed out.]
[O Dok-seo: He’s a total psycho. Suspicious vibe and he might kill me on the spot. Gotta handle carefully.]
???
No blood or tears… hatred… rage, what?
Sorry, who are you talking about?
For starters, Dang Seo-rin didn’t die to the Ten Tribes last regression. Those things felt like the Wall of Lament only early on; by the 20th, I could mop them up in five minutes like water rockets.
Maybe this girl…
‘Could she know about my past self?’
That’s when it hit.
[O Dok-seo: Hey, mister over there.]
“Hey, mister over there.”
Telepathy overlapped with her real voice.
O Dok-seo’s index finger pointed at me. By now, only about ten people remained in the Busan Station concourse, all huddled together except me.
“Mister, come join us. That fairy bitch made a blood fountain and everyone puked. We should at least stick together, right?”
“Fairy No. 264 didn’t do anything wrong! The seniors passed the wrong guidelines! If anything, No. 264 is the pitiful victim…”
“Shut it, kid. Adults are talking. Don’t butt in.”
“Eek.”
In the midst of the survivor group, O Dok-seo puffed out her chest like she was the leader.
While everyone feared the fairy, she alone confronted her head-on, clearly leaving a deep impression on the survivors. In truth, Fairy No. 264 had just followed her manual with no malice toward humans (bourgeoisie aside), so she shrank back drastically.
“So? Mister, you coming over? Or not?”
“……”
O Dok-seo muttered—or rather, thought it.
[O Dok-seo: Come on. Fuck, please come. Without you, we all die! Lost your first love, the only guild leader you served Dang Seo-rin dies, monsters suck, world sucks, but please save us!]
Honestly, I didn’t understand half of what this kid was saying, or how she got these misconceptions.
But one thing was clear.
‘Sticking with her seems like a guaranteed fun ride this regression.’
Beyond the thrill of amusement, there was another reason—maybe useful for subjugating some anomaly—but that’s a story for much later.
Anyway.
I recalled myself from long, long ago—over a thousand years back. What expression I wore, what look in my eyes, what tone I used.
“…I won’t follow you.”
Something like that, right? Spot on? Feels right.
Even after endless regressions, impersonating my past self was a first. Felt refreshingly novel.
“I will merely observe you.”
“Oh. Whatever.”
O Dok-seo snorted like it was no big deal.
I farmed a silver bell from the souvenir shop, then read her thoughts again.
[O Dok-seo: Whoa, shit. That voice is scary as hell? Totally chills… Hmm. But without the protagonist, escaping Busan Station concourse is near impossible… Gotta build favor by any means.]
Yeah.
Definitely an entertaining one.
Infinite Regressor Spills the Tea