Chapter 253
Chapter 253
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 253
Chapter Title: Rampage in the Lab
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7
I acted the part of a thoroughly competent researcher, building up my connections.
As much as I hated to admit it, the "Undertaker Woman" was fairly beautiful.
Add a sweet and gentle demeanor on top of that, along with tailored strategies for each individual, and even the researcher NPCs opened up to me without much resistance.
"Researcher, you must be tired. Here, have some coffee and take it easy."
"Oh! Thank you. Wow, it's been ages since an ascended Undertaker made me coffee like this. I've kinda missed it even after coming here...."
The researchers called themselves ascended ones.
In the old days, I would have thoroughly rejected the term as rooted in Awakener supremacy, but it actually seemed like a fitting title for these folks.
'The ascended or whatever, these guys are NPCs created based on my comrades.'
Which meant the playbook for winning them over was pretty much the same. My head was stocked with hundreds of ways to earn their goodwill.
"You're so kind, Researcher 107. The Undertaker back in the world I ascended from was a total selfish prick who only cared about himself...."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. He was a regressor, right? 'Just do what I say and there won't be any problems,' he'd say, living off his own smugness. So we all teamed up and stabbed him in the back."
"Ahaha."
"And he yapped about Romance of the Three Kingdoms nonstop. Like, who even reads that anymore? It's not fun, but I had to keep nodding along. It was torture."
"...."
Hold it in, me.
The researchers in front of me weren't my true comrades—they were mere existences filtered through the endless hell of the black幕 outer god's minions. They weren't worth taking seriously.
For now, while my aura recovered, I'd focus solely on charm campaigns.
A few days later, my surroundings were crawling with researchers.
"Researcher 107! Lunch together today...."
"Wanna go for a walk after eating?"
"Uh, sis. Something weird popped up in my simulator. Got time to check it out with me?"
"Researcher 107!"
In the blink of an eye, I'd become the lab's star.
The slime—Fairy Lord—that was still clinging to my body 24/7, manipulating my appearance, wriggled.
-Amazement: Impressive. You've got a real talent for being thrown into any group and immediately ruling as the social king.
-Question: Which makes me wonder. Why didn't you max out this skill back in the original world? Is the Undertaker Woman just a superior specimen to the Undertaker?
Shut up.
"...Blindly tailoring myself to everyone's ideal type might work short-term, but it'd wear me out eventually. I have to stick with my comrades for 10 years, 20 years—hell, tens of thousands of years. This kind of approach is only for runs where relationships don't matter. It's a devil's path."
-Explanation: The wearer seems to live a pretty exhausting life.
This slime had started off robotic, but after a few days hanging with me, it was getting way more human-like.
Anyway, I'd gotten pretty accustomed to this void environment called the "Simulation Universe Research Lab."
The moment I judged my aura sufficiently recovered, I kicked off the operation.
"Ah, sis? You're here?"
"I'm not your sis. I'm a monster."
"Y-Yes? Huh?"
A lab room, just the two of us.
I cleaved through the researcher NPC in Sim A-ryeon's form in one stroke.
-...!!
The researcher collapsed without even putting up a fight.
In a normal divine realm, a signal would've gone straight to the black幕 outer god the instant it died, but with endless hell holding aggro, the black幕 wasn't focused here.
"Fairy Lord. Transform me into that one's body."
-Response: Understood.
The slime devoured the corpse and returned to me. My body slowly reshaped.
Looking in the mirror, I was no longer the Undertaker Woman—I was Researcher Sim A-ryeon. A perfect transformation.
"Ah, ah. Aah."
I warped my vocal cords with aura, testing out voices.
"Th-This way of talking.... I-I think it works. Ehehehe."
-Astonishment: For the first time in my life, I've experienced the human emotion called surprise. Henceforth, I'll define such phenomena as "chills."
"Sh-Shut up...."
-Chills.
I destroyed the simulation universe that the real Sim A-ryeon researcher had been in charge of.
A regressor's power source was, naturally, regression.
On the flip side, the black幕 outer god's strategy against me was simulation universes.
The more of these fake universes I destroyed, the weaker the black幕 outer god's authority became.
-Question: Thousands of simulation universes are estimated in this divine realm alone. You planning to smash them all one by one?
"Th-Thousands... Hooee...."
I let out a gloomy laugh like Sim A-ryeon.
"Hooet-hehehe...."
-Chills: Chills.
I disguised it as the Undertaker Woman dying instead of Sim A-ryeon. I'd trashed Lab 107 into total chaos.
Not even hours later, the "crime scene" was discovered.
The researcher NPCs who'd built up affection with the Undertaker Woman flew into a rage.
"Researcher 107 was murdered...."
"Who the hell did it? Huh? Which bastard?!"
"I heard there's an intruder. It has to be that fucker!"
"Our barista, the Researcher 107 we all loved, is dead! Why?!"
"Wait, I secretly suspected 107 might be the intruder, so this is kinda throwing me...."
From the black幕 outer god's perspective, the suddenly popular Undertaker Woman had been a high-priority watchlist target.
For such a figure to drop dead—especially while it was burning resources fighting endless hell—must've been pretty disorienting.
But my terror spree didn't end there.
"Um, excuse me. Researcher 511."
"Yeah? What's up?"
"Actually, I've got a th-theory about this incident. B-But it can't get out, so.... Could you come here a sec?"
I lured out the other researchers one by one and hunted them down. Smashing the simulation universes they managed was a bonus.
The core of this op was destroying as many simulations as possible before the black幕 outer god could respond.
From Undertaker Woman to Sim A-ryeon, Dang Seo-rin, Saintess, Seo-gyu, Yoo Ji-won, back to Undertaker, another Dang Seo-rin—I "transformed" through them all, rampaging through labs at a terrifying pace.
-Amazement: Doesn't the wearer's talent lie more in acting than barista work?
"Quiet."
Slash.
I answered while executing Researcher 801, the gold-dyed Golden Sun Undertaker.
The Golden Sun Undertaker gaped in shock, blood pouring out.
"D-Dang Seo-rin researcher! Why would you...!"
"Because I'm not Dang Seo-rin. Repeat after me: Trains are mere transport, witches are just cosplay."
"No... way...."
Thud.
The Golden Sun Undertaker died.
After butchering over 200 researchers, I reached a solid conclusion.
"These guys. All that talk of being ascended, and they're this fragile."
Even the one imitating the Saintess was pathetically weak.
If she'd honed [Time Stop] to the extreme like the real one, she wouldn't have fallen so easily. But the researcher Saintess screamed her way into the trap I'd set.
"Are these really the chosen ones who survived to the end in all those world-end simulations, handpicked by the black幕? They're too weak."
-Response: Naturally.
The slime Fairy Lord answered my doubt without missing a beat.
-Explanation: Simulation universes are designed to nerf you and countless other Awakeners and monsters.
-Corollary: If it buffs other Awakeners or monsters too much just to check the wearer, it backfires on the black幕.
"...I see. So it deliberately weakens the ascended ones."
It wasn't just physical frailty.
Compared to the real-world comrades, these researchers were clearly deficient in mental fortitude and morals too.
The Golden Sun Undertaker I'd just killed was so pathetic it made me think, "Is this really me?"
-Explanation: That's why they're the black幕 outer god's minions, right?
Fair point.
Exactly 130 days later, the simulation lab collapsed.
The researchers pulled out all the stops to hunt the intruder, but good luck finding a shape-shifting troll like me.
Having studied how villain "Goryeo Jang" had nuked communities in the past, this was child's play for me.
Suspicion. Incitement. Loose lips. Distortion and misinterpretation shadow clones—the researcher NPCs, weak to it all, panicked hysterically.
"Amazing, sunbae!"
After smashing around 5,000 simulation universes, endless hell reappeared.
Endless hell had ditched the researcher disguise entirely, wearing the Baekhwa Girls' High School uniform—in inverted black-and-white, unlike Cheon Yo-hwa's.
"The black幕 probably took on your comrades' appearances on purpose to guilt-trip you! And you slaughtered them without a second thought! As expected of sunbae! That's what I respect!"
"You're one to talk, leeching off Cheon Yo-hwa's body."
"Ahahat."
Endless hell latched onto my arm.
I reflexively tried to shake it off, but it wouldn't budge. Crimson, sticky aura wafted from endless hell's entire body.
Unlike the setting-locked researcher NPCs, endless hell exuded an overwhelming presence.
"...."
"But it's a shame the Undertaker Woman version from last time vanished. It was super cute. Oh, not saying you're not cute, sunbae! Those dead eyes are your charm point."
"Get to the point."
"Thanks to your flashy terror show, sunbae, the turf war for this divine realm has swung fully in my favor."
Crunch.
Endless hell playfully opened and closed its palm.
Crunccccch—
Space itself compressed in sync with the gesture, dragging surviving researcher NPCs—and about 20 simulation universe holograms—together into one spot.
"Huh?"
"Wh-What's going on?"
The researchers panicked, looking around. Not just them—the holograms too.
Endless hell pressed even closer to my arm, grinning. Lips splitting to its ears.
"Come on, sunbae. Down to a handful now."
"...."
"Want me to leave the finishing blow to you?"
Seeing that, it hit me again.
'To subjugate the black幕, endless hell's cooperation is essential. But weakening the black幕 lets endless hell ascend instead.'
Endless hell's authority: [Data Input].
Even its minions devolved into such limp NPCs under it.
If it hadn't been subjugated by me at Baekhwa Girls' High School, endless hell would've been top-tier among outer gods.
'As expected, relying on "endless hell strat" is hopelessly flawed.'
I was certain.
I had to find a way to reach the black幕's divine realm without leaning on endless hell.
Pioneering a new route might be this run's ultimate achievement.
"Hmm."
Endless hell looked up at me.
"I know what you're fretting over, sunbae. Scared that if we wipe out these researchers and sims, you'll have no way to check me anymore?"
"...."
"But remember, I'm still scared of you too. Regression resets everything to zero. We're mutual enemies. So, how about this?"
"Speak."
"I'll [Data Input] myself too."
Endless hell tapped its temple with a finger.
"[I will love sunbae forever.]"
My eyes widened. Totally out of left field.
"But in exchange, I input you too. [You will love me forever.]"
"...."
"No wordplay here. We trust, talk, advance together. Yeah. Positive eternal love. Then neither of us can betray or exploit the other, right?"
Endless hell smirked.
"Even if you regress, sunbae, you'd still trust and love me, so you'd spill all the past details. We could rule the world together! Rip the black幕 anytime."
"...Not bad thinking."
"Ahahat. Of course! I'm different from other outer gods. Back then, demon kings tempted heroes with half the world. Now, half a heart's the trend."
"You're a monster. Do you even understand love?"
Endless hell gestured to its chest.
"Dunno? But this heart does."
"...."
"Wanna turn our mutual hostility into mutual affection, sunbae?"
I didn't answer.
It sounded good, but not just because of the trap clause "hand over Cheon Yo-hwa's body" lurking in the proposal.
I swung my aura, massacring the researchers in one go.
"Ah!"
With the simulation universes fully crumbled, endless hell's face lit up.
I just stared at endless hell.
"Really?! You accepted my proposal?!"
"...."
"Oh my god! I threw it out as an all-or-nothing hail mary, and you bit! Ah, not calling you dumb! As expected, sunbae. Pretending not to care but eyeing outer god powers, huh? Don't worry. I'm a good monster. Look at my fairy minions! Cute and sweet, right? All like their master.
I've been watching you up close this whole time, waiting for the perfect moment when you're off-guard like now.
"
Endless hell froze.
One second of stillness.
"Huh?"
Immediately after, endless hell's lips and the lab speakers blared a voice in unison.
Just like when afflicted with black幕 syndrome.
"Wait, what the
Destroying this simulation lab was all part of my plan
fuck?"
-The entity you met the moment you opened your eyes here was what?
-Fairy Lord. My puppet, endless hell's. Foolishly, you allowed my host to cling to your body and follow you.
"No! I thought I planted that as a liaison
but that too was merely part of my plan you Undertaker in the end nothing you did here wasn't my design
No, sunbae! My mouth moved on its own
just another of my 'experiments'.
"
Endless hell grimaced, grunting.
The endless hell on my arm vanished like smoke. The slime that had faithfully played innocent mask evaporated too.
What followed was a repeat of the past.
Screeeeech—
The lab ceiling tore open. Looking up, a vast cosmos stretched outside, with a rift at its center.
-Ah.
Endless hell's gigantic red eye peered down through the rift.
Endless hell extended its arm with familiar motions. Having seen it once, I leaped deftly onto its palm.
'Feels just like Sun Wukong climbing Buddha's palm.'
Endless hell demolished the lab, then dragged me toward the rift in the cosmic distance.
A brief blackout.
Coming to, I was collapsed in a pristine, restored lab.
Turning around, there lay the "simulation universe" of the just-destroyed "Simulation Universe Research Lab."
"...."
"...."
The difference from last time: endless hell stood before me.
Endless hell, having reached the "meta-simulation universe simulating simulation universes," muttered lowly.
"What the actual fuck...."
Pure native-speaker vibes, enviable even to humans.