Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Father and Son II
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Shin Noah
3
No one knows the geography of the Korean Peninsula as thoroughly as I do.
Even Kim Jeong-ho, who created the Daedongyeojido, would have to yield to me.
And that’s no joke—he never set foot everywhere in the country.
I even went to that abandoned inn in On-yang to hunt the Udumbara.
After the National Highway Management Corps was established in the 54th cycle, the navigation app in my head became even more meticulously updated.
No matter how capable No Do-ha was, it was impossible for her to manage every road in the country.
She lacked both the manpower and the resources.
Roads connecting cities had to be limited to exactly one per route,
and even those needed to be restored as single-lane paths only.
Tunnels were especially dangerous.
They were either already collapsed or at high risk of collapsing in the future,
and if they remained intact, that made them even more hazardous.
Because dark, pitch-black tunnels were terrain that anomalies particularly loved and obsessed over.
With 70% of the national territory consisting of mountainous areas,
this was a fatal flaw for the Korean Peninsula, which had favored tunnels so much.
Ah, of course, not as bad as Japan.
Their “tunnels” are truly serious.
I’ll address that separately when the time comes.
Anyway.
The National Highway Management Corps had to scout routes connecting cities while bypassing all tunnels.
If that was too difficult, they had to carve new paths through the mountains.
A project known as the “Road Thinning Operation.”
It was on the scale of a national endeavor in terms of difficulty.
“Undertaker Awakener, please take care of it……”
Naturally, this plan was entirely entrusted to me.
“Understood.”
I didn’t complain to No Do-ha at all.
This project had been intended for me from the start.
For example, if we assume we need to go from Busan to Daegu,
which route should be restored as a single lane to be most effective?
Here, “effective” didn’t simply mean the shortest time.
Time was actually a relatively low-priority factor.
The most important was:
How far is it from the monsters’ lairs?
Is four-directional vigilance secured?
Especially, how many rest points—“midway relay stations where patrols can safely camp”—can be secured?
If we get a little greedier,
it’s better if they’re close to water sources as much as possible.
But since dams could collapse at any moment,
you didn’t want to suffer an “Ulji Mun-deok” fate,
so you had to stay far from dams too.
Bridges went without saying.
In short?
“A project with way too many things to consider.”
Yes.
Only I could handle something like this.
No matter how smart someone was,
drawing up a plausible road network from a desk was useless.
What could you do when the maps spread on the desk were all outdated?
The maps we could obtain were all antiques made before the Gate incident.
In the end, there was no alternative but for me to run around on foot myself.
We had a few satellite photos,
but they couldn’t reveal the incredibly detailed aspects I needed to consider.
And in this ruined world,
who else had the leisure to tour the entire country?
Only an infinite regressor.
“Please take good care of me from now on. Saintess.”
[Yes. I’ll support you.]
From the 54th to the 56th cycle,
I traversed every corner of the eight provinces, sweating through the soles of my feet, shooting a road movie.
Sometimes I traveled with patrols,
but mostly I wandered alone.
Well, I could always chat with the Saintess via [Telepathy],
so it wasn’t that boring.
If I compiled just these three cycles’ travelogue into an extra volume for publication,
the title might be something like [I’m an Infinite Regressor in a Doomed World, But I’ll Leisurely Travel Alone with the Saintess’s Voice].
It might lack grand incidents, making it story-wise a bit dull,
but personally, I really like these three cycles.
It had been a long time since I met more ordinary people than Awakeners.
I formed many connections during this time.
“Huh, this road…… Isn’t this the place?”
Kim Si-eun.
My first meeting with the son of a former pro soccer player happened in the 54th cycle.
“Excuse me.”
“Wah?! S-Surprise!”
A young man in travel attire jumped in fright.
I wasn’t sure whether to call him a young man or a boy—
he was somewhere in between.
Maybe it was because he was unusually short.
Until I spoke to him from behind,
he had been standing blankly in front of Changwon Tunnel.
He was unfolding a map worn out from being spread and folded dozens or hundreds of times,
practically burying his face in a map much larger than his own.
Especially eye-catching was the oversized backpack that seemed burdensome for his small frame.
In short, he looked like a textbook backpacker from head to toe.
“Who are you?”
The only difference was carrying a spear instead of a walking stick.
He gripped the spear toward me.
But the spear looked makeshift.
It was clearly a 100% homemade job, with a dagger tightly wrapped around a staff tip with blue tape.
Actually, that was the current fashion trend among backpackers.
“If you travel without a spear? Is your final destination a monster’s stomach or what?”
To avoid such nagging, you had to follow the latest trends.
“Sorry for startling you. I’m a member of the Three Thousand Worlds Guild who participated in the Ten Tribes subjugation battle—an Awakener.”
“Awakener……?”
Wariness filled the young man’s eyes,
but a hint of “Maybe I should hear him out?” began to emerge.
In any cycle, after the Ten Tribes subjugation battle,
ordinary people’s attitudes toward Awakeners became much more docile.
Like Americans treating WWII veterans who returned after the war.
Especially residents near Seoul treated Awakeners quite well.
The young man seemed from that area too,
as his speech attempted at least some politeness.
“Um. Sorry. I was just so startled……”
“It’s my fault for speaking suddenly from behind. Don’t worry about it.
More importantly, it’s better not to cross this tunnel since it’s collapsed.”
Embarrassment mixed into the young man’s expression.
“Huh? Why, why?”
“Can’t you see the entrance has collapsed?”
I pointed to Changwon Tunnel.
Untouched by human hands, weeds and underbrush grew wildly around it.
Only the cracked asphalt road like a skin disease and the tunnel entrance barely asserted, “This was once our territory.”
The young man’s voice shrank.
“Still, it looks like one person could squeeze through……”
“I don’t recommend it.”
“Huh? Why?”
“The odds of anomalies…… well, monsters inhabiting it are extremely high.”
“Ah.”
In this harsh world,
even for a young man traveling with just a walking stick and backpack,
the word “monster” had the magic to make him give up everything.
“Then, why are you here, Awakener……?”
“There was a missing person report in this area.
There have been quite a few cases like this one, where someone thought they could pass since it’s just one person and met with trouble.
So I plan to seal it off completely.”
“Oh my god.”
“It’s dangerous, so please step back.”
I collapsed the tunnel right in front of the young man.
A ghostly wail echoed from deep inside,
but I didn’t particularly care.
Probably the noise of slimes bursting.
“You really are an Awakener……!”
Witnessing I wasn’t a fake Awakener,
the young man finally let go of his wariness.
For the record,
it probably wasn’t because he trusted Awakeners’ goodness.
More like humbly acknowledging that against an Awakener strong enough to demolish a tunnel with one sword stroke,
his caution was pointless anyway.
In a broken world,
objective self-assessment was key to living stress-free.
In that sense, the young man was well-adapted to this world.
“Where are you coming from?”
“Ah, I originally lived in Asan.”
“What? You walked from Asan all the way here? Alone?”
“Haha. Yes.”
The young man scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
“My mother’s hometown is in Daesan-myeon, Changwon.
Do you know Daesan-myeon? It’s in Changwon.
Anyway, I stopped there and was heading to Busan.
I thought this tunnel route would be the fastest, but who knew it was a slime dungeon……”
“Is your mother in her hometown?”
“Ah. No. She passed away seven years ago.”
At that moment, a familiar sound effect rang in my heart: ding-a-ling.
The sound of affinity for the young man right in front of me rising.
What’s there to hide?
I, the Undertaker,
though not particularly aged,
am a man who sheds tears at the character for filial piety.
Even if you replace it with familial love, same thing.
A regressor’s weakness is always love.
“Did you decide to travel because you wanted to see your late mother’s hometown at least once?”
“Yes!”
“You’re truly filial. It must have been an obviously grueling journey.”
“Nah. Compared to the hardships my mother went through raising me, it’s nothing.”
Affinity plus 200 points!
By this point, I had resolved to safely escort this young man all the way to Busan.
I was heading to Busan anyway to see No Do-ha’s face.
One extra companion was no burden.
“I was planning to head to Busan after demolishing this tunnel.
If it’s okay with you, would you like to come along?”
“Really?”
Color bloomed on the young man’s face at my offer.
“Yes. My name is Undertaker. Not my real name, but a moniker.
It’ll be a short trip, but please take care of me.”
“Likewise! I’m Kim Si-eun! Uh, speak casually to me.”
“Got it. Take care of me, Si-eun.”
“Yes! Big bro!”
We shook hands.
The height difference was significant, so I subtly bent my waist a bit.
To be honest,
up to this point, I had no idea the Kim Si-eun in front of me was that “Kim Si-eun.”
There were unavoidable circumstances.
To sum up the very long and verbose excuse in one line:
I had simply forgotten the name Kim Si-eun all this time.
Of course, in this episode,
it’s depicted as if I kept remembering soccer player Kim Joo-cheol’s dying words.
But as I’ve emphasized repeatedly,
that consistency is purely the result of my text editing.
I met Kim Joo-cheol in the 4th cycle,
and Kim Si-eun in the 54th.
Over 500 years lay between those points.
How could I vividly recall the past from before I acquired [Perfect Memory Ability]?
“What does your father do?”
“Huh? My father?”
I started sensing something off—some kind of dissonance—
that day while preparing camp with Kim Si-eun.
Hearing my question,
Kim Si-eun furrowed his brow.
Like someone asked what they thought of the mythical beast Black Tortoise.
“Uh…… Well, I don’t know.”
“Why? Did something bad happen when you were young?”
“No, not for that reason…… Um. I just can’t remember!”
I was casually unrolling my sleeping bag when my eyes suddenly widened.
The attitude Kim Si-eun showed while speaking.
That slightly drawn-out tone at the end
was a type of reaction all too familiar to me.
“Wait. This is a very rude question, but since you’re an orphan too, I’ll just ask bluntly.
Do you have absolutely no thoughts about your father?”
“Huh? Ah, yes……”
“Your mother never once talked about your father?
And you never asked her about him?”
“…Yup. So?”
“You’ve never even thought that was strange?”
Kim Si-eun stared at me with his round, squirrel-like eyes.
There wasn’t a shred of doubt on his face.
If anything, he seemed to think I was the weird one for caring.
Because
it’s only natural not to think about something that doesn’t exist.
“Yes. That’s right.”
“……”
I let out a sigh.
And gazed up at the night sky over the campsite for a long time.
The bonds of the world were this tenacious and terrifying.
“Si-eun.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s stop somewhere briefly in Busan with me.”
4
My meeting with Kim Si-eun was, in a word, a miracle.
Well, not in some grandiose sense of overusing the word miracle.
Like all miracles,
upon close inspection, this encounter wasn’t born from nothing—
it arose from various existing conditions aligning exquisitely.
The details of those conditions
could be sufficiently inferred from Kim Si-eun’s own revealed background.
“You worked in Asan before the Gates?”
“Yes. A relative ran a really big mart there.
I did some part-time work!”
What caught my attention here
was the location “Asan” itself.
Readers familiar with Korean geography
might have felt a chill down their necks just like me upon hearing Asan.
To briefly explain,
administratively, On-yang district was included in Asan City, Chungcheongnam-do.
Yes. On-yang.
The area where that abandoned inn stood,
where the World Tree “Udumbara” first bloomed red.
If I hadn’t subjugated the Udumbara,
Asan residents would inevitably be infected by the virus.
Too close to the epicenter—no helping it.
I haven’t calculated exactly,
but by full bloom, 99% of Asan civilians would have been wiped out.
――Kim Si-eun would naturally be on that casualty list.
Even if he miraculously avoided the virus,
the situation wouldn’t improve.
Because Korea had the Ten Tribes,
the peninsula’s one and only Michelin Guide judge.
No matter how the Shinbul virus granted humanity immortality,
if the Ten Tribes lopped off your head and destroyed your brain,
that was it.
Until the guild coalition subjugated the Ten Tribes,
all humans on the peninsula were just omakase menu items on their table.
In short, for Kim Si-eun to survive safely
and travel Asan-Changwon-Busan clutching a homemade spear,
several conditions were required.
Let’s neatly display them like an RPG quest window:
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[Kim Si-eun Survival Route Unlock Conditions]
1. Subjugate the “Ten Tribes.” If the Ten Tribes head south from Seoul unsubjugated, Kim Si-eun dies.
2. Subjugate the World Tree “Udumbara.” Kim Si-eun is one of those infected in the virus’s early stages. If you don’t subjugate Udumbara immediately after regression, you can’t prevent his death.
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A difficulty impossible to clear without me, the regressor.
And Kim Si-eun isn’t the only such person on the peninsula?
Countless others were in the same boat.
Take Dang Seo-rin, who keeps tempting me to be witch friends whenever she gets the chance—
she too only gains survival guarantee after eliminating the Ten Tribes.
Subjugating boss monsters
was akin to unlocking previously “locked” regions one by one.
Kim Si-eun was like an NPC unlocked only in the route where I killed the Ten Tribes and Udumbara.
Of course, this is just a game metaphor—
the real world isn’t a game.
Real humans aren’t NPCs.
Thus,
the responsibilities humans must bear also exist plainly.
“…Uh, so.”
After hearing my full explanation,
Kim Si-eun narrowed his brow.
“You’re saying I actually had a father named Kim Joo-cheol?
Because Big Bro Undertaker sealed my father, I lost all memories of him.”
“Yes. More precisely, he was erased from everyone’s memories, not just yours.”
“No way, there’s a power like that?”
Kim Si-eun gaped in disbelief.
He was reacting this way because he’s ordinary,
but [Time Seal] was actually fairly commonplace.
This world even had abilities that grew stronger healing by pulling aggro online.
Ordinary people generally misjudged that Awakeners must have RPG-character-like powers.
But in reality, there were far more bizarre, outlandish ones.
“Anyway, it might be a mistake, but from my perspective, you seem highly likely to be Kim Joo-cheol’s son.”
“Hmm. Well, I don’t feel it at all……”
“Have you ever been interested in soccer in your life?”
Kim Si-eun froze.
“…No?”
“Kim Joo-cheol was a former pro soccer player.
If you lost all memories of your father,
you probably lost a huge chunk of soccer memories too.”
“But lots of people aren’t into soccer.”
“Sure. But having zero memories is a whole different level.
You’ve never watched a World Cup match your whole life? Not even once?
Never seen videos or articles about Korean players abroad?”
Kim Si-eun shut his mouth.
“Kim Joo-cheol is sealed in a Busan stadium.
If this is all my misunderstanding, sorry in advance.
But I think it’s worth you following me to check the truth.”
“……”
His deliberation didn’t last long.
Infinite Regressor Telling Tales