Chapter 63
Chapter 63
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: Sleepwalker I: Shin Noah
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Sleepwalker I
Shin Noah
1
In my regression life, I consider cycles 1 through 100 as the "early phase." Another way to put it would be the "childhood period."
It was a time when I romantically fantasized that just beating down the anomalies would somehow bring peace to the world.
And during this early phase, there existed three boss monster brothers who claimed the Korean Peninsula as their personal territory.
Stage 1 Boss: The Crawling Octopus Noggin. No matter how much you stab it, unless you pierce both hearts at the same time, it unleashes infinite regenerative power and absolutely refuses to die! Known as the "Immortal Ten Tribes"!
Stage 2 Boss: You get screwed if you don't know! I joyfully accepted what seemed like a virus promising free immortality in the apocalypse, only to find out it was nothing more than fertilizer to grow one massive World Tree! The New Buddha and Divine Buddha, the "Immortal Udumbara"!
Stage 3 Boss: You get screwed even if you do know! In the 7th year from the start of regressions, no matter what, Armageddon inevitably rains down from the night sky—the "Inevitably Unavoidable Meteor Shower"!
Is the Korean Peninsula's location for real? It really makes your chest swell with grandeur.
That said, among those, the Ten Tribes can pretty much be ignored now. By around the 100th cycle, the Ten Tribes are reduced to mere trash mobs that can be one-turned.
-Kkyuwoo?
Yeah. No mercy even if you act cute. Octopus tentacle-headed Zaltrap cut.
The Udumbara, which has held aliases like "Shinbul Virus," "Red Cordyceps," "World Tree," and more—while earning twice over in infamy—is no different.
-Hungry...?
It might feel a bit wronged from its perspective, but from the start, the Udumbara has the worst matchup against a regressor like me.
From the moment I pinpointed its origin as Room 202 on the second floor of an abandoned inn in Onyang, the Udumbara was perfectly countered.
So now, the final chapter of childhood.
"Huh? Hey, look at the sky."
Let's talk about the Meteor Shower.
"Gasp! Shooting stars! Oh my god, there are so many!"
"The ground's fucked, but the sky's still pretty...."
To be precise, strictly speaking, among the early phase boss brothers, the only anomaly that pinpointed and operated exclusively on the Korean Peninsula was the Ten Tribes.
As you know, the Udumbara dyed the entire East Asia with its cult of the New Buddha.
The Meteor Shower was the same. "Shooting stars" didn't fall just on the Korean Peninsula.
It was the entire world.
"Huh? Why's that one getting closer and closer...?"
"What are you doing! Dodge! Run!"
"Run where...? It's falling from the entire sky, Guild Leader?"
"...."
Have you ever played a battle royale game?
In those games, as time passes, the playable map radius shrinks bit by bit. Like the "safe zone" narrowing due to the "storm" closing in.
It's a technique to herd players into a tight ring as the game enters the late stages.
This world cherry-picked only the shitty parts of games. Because our lives were a total trash game.
"Half of the Eurasian continent is gone!"
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Just straight-up deleted. Why, the Meteor Shower from last week. They say half the continent got blasted off entirely?"
"This is insane."
Once in South America, once in Australia, once in Eurasia, once in the Pacific Ocean.
Continents struck by the star bombardment inevitably turned into barren wastelands uninhabitable by humans.
True Armageddon.
Humanity, who for a fleeting moment gazed up at the shower of shooting stars like a spring rain in the night sky and basked in apocalyptic romance, shuddered in terror.
"Again, again! It's falling again!"
"Fuck, where this time? Where's it hitting...?"
Meteor Shower. Western awakeners often called it "Armageddon," Japanese awakeners named it "Meteor." According to the Library Society's classification—which sees naming anomalies as their sacred duty—its hazard level is Continent-class, identification name "Twinkling Little Star."
"...."
In the previous episode, the shooting star Lee Ha-yul reached out to was none other than this.
Another way our world met its end.
2
The first time I encountered the Meteor Shower was in the 23rd cycle.
To me, the number 23 holds tremendous significance. In a slightly negative sense—or more bluntly, since I now believe you and I are close enough for such expressions, please forgive my candor—it held profoundly shitty significance.
Perhaps some of you with exceptional memories like mine will immediately recall the incident in the 23rd cycle, or more precisely, the incident that began "from" the 23rd cycle.
"Huh? Old-timer? Old Man Show, you here?"
Ta-da!
Congratulations! You have discovered Old Man Show's corpse!
"Madness."
That's right.
The point when Old Man Show first took a vacation was precisely the 23rd cycle. It was also the moment the BGM titled "(Warning) Total Fuckup (Congrats)" was selected as the Undertaker's character theme.
At that time, I.... well.
Honestly, I was pathetic.
Call it a dark chapter of my history. The person I thought would fight alongside me for life suddenly vanished.
"Wow, such a grand spell with just two chants.... I'm a genius after all! And Undertaker! You're kinda a genius too!"
Though I didn't say it, one reason I helped Dang Seo-rin complete her equivalent exchange magic was this. Back then, I was mentally leaning on Dang Seo-rin.
Because, um....
I do wonder if I really need to reveal this much, but surely by now, you and I can freely discuss such things.
To be honest. Because in my regression life, she was the only one I believed could share the same timeline as me.
"We can't live together alive, but we'll journey together in death, huh."
"Looking forward to it. My companion through time."
Of course, Dang Seo-rin didn't remember the time spent with me. But at least, her magic—burning lifespan to unleash song—continued accruing her lifespan even through regressions.
So, embarrassingly, I treated Dang Seo-rin like a replacement for Old Man Show.
No, "replacement" is too mild. I was blatantly dependent on her.
Even as my mentality crumbled, I didn't forget my final duty as a regressor.
Somehow, without Old Man Show, I built the organization alone, propped up Dang Seo-rin as alliance leader, and subjugated the Ten Tribes.
And in the 7th year.
"Yawn. Undertaker, look over there."
"Hm? Shooting stars?"
"Yeah. A ton of them."
Dang Seo-rin, barefoot with shoes dangling from one hand, pointed at the night sky while walking the sandy beach.
That was the first observation of the Meteor Shower.
Naturally, back then, no one imagined those twinkling shooting stars in the night sky could be anomalies.
I finished the night stroll, returned, and fell into a sweet sleep—
Blink. I opened my eyes, and suddenly, I was back at the regression starting point.
Back at Busan Station.
"...What?"
I was so dumbfounded I blankly looked around. What the hell was this?
I'd just gone to bed moments ago, and suddenly regressed—who wouldn't be mentally scrambled?
At first, I thought it was a dream. But no matter how hard I pinched myself, I didn't wake. So—holy shit. I'd truly regressed "while sleeping."
"You fucking bastard!"
SG Guy's (back then, I didn't know Seo-gyu's real name) signature "fuck" rang out thunderously, like an alarm app dedicated to ruining office workers' mornings.
And I was seized by exactly the same emotions as a morning commuter: 30% daze, 70% utter shit.
'No, wait, hold on. What the actual fuck?'
But regardless of my bewilderment, the world's physical time flowed relentlessly onward.
Kyaaah— a scream tore through Busan Station's concourse. A fairy had neatly sliced off Seo-gyu's head.
Amid the chaos of people fleeing in droves, only I stood dazed, mind unmoored.
Some materialists, when their mind checks out, let their body rampage too. Others fill the void with reason. I was mostly the latter.
'Did someone poison me?'
That was the most rational guess.
'Or assassination? Even so—no way. Even if I was asleep, did they really assassinate the Undertaker like twisting a chicken's neck?'
Ah.
I let out a groan.
'How could this happen! I was too complacent!'
That's right.
In the end, humanity's enemy wasn't monsters, but fellow humans—personal threats. Didn't our ancestors first decide to write history books just to eternally pass down [I lived, and humanity is fucking shit]?
"Now... I'll live for myself."
As I declared my naked survival vow with a resolute face, the fairy rolling Seo-gyu's head around beside me tilted its head.
"Hoe. This human's not running and spouting nonsense?"
"Shut up, tutorial trash mob."
I countered Fairy No. 264's retort with a knuckle flick ("Hoek!"), then farmed the silver bell from the concourse souvenir shop as usual.
Then, immediately into countermeasures.
Never sleep alone. Establish a guild, recruit comrades, build an impregnable fortress hideout, and bunk together there....
That's when I started obsessing over the guild hideout.
Later, it all got mind-controlled to shit by some entity named Go Yo-ri, crumbling from within—but until then, my guild hideout was a fortress never once breached. Like Gongsun Zan's Beiping or Jiang Yu's Jian'ge (ignore that they both fell eventually).
Of course, though I declared naked survival, I wasn't the type of solo-survival-obsessed Korean webnovel regressor protagonist who thrashes alone. That didn't suit my personality.
Humans are meant to live together, right?
Naturally, I actively shared my fortress-building know-how with those around me.
"Uh, Undertaker. Thanks for caring about my safety, but... is it okay to say this? You're, um, overreacting a bit, aren't you?"
Hm. Maybe "share" is less apt than "strongly recommend."
"Fool! That's how you get assassinated unnoticed, Dang Seo-rin Guild Leader!"
"Eek. Huh? Oh, uh...?"
"People fawn over you as the Korean Peninsula's top awakener, and your ego pierces the heavens! No matter how strong you are, that's only after singing three verses of Song Enchantment! Until then, you're just a mage before a swordmaster! You think those vile assassins will wait for your leisurely concert?!"
"No, wait. See.... This is our guild HQ, right? I've got a solid night watch and patrol system. Breaking into my sleeping car without someone on your level is impossible, so why...?"
"Fool! Assassins have naturally already bought off all your loyal guildmates! What if the enemy has hypnosis or mind control?!"
"Eh...."
Surprisingly, at that point, I 120% accurately predicted the future where Go Yo-ri would fuck me over to the bone. That's regressor experience for you.
Pathetic experience.
Dang Seo-rin seemed to reach a similar conclusion.
"If an awakener has such bullshit powers, security's pointless from the start...?"
"Fool! From now on, before bed, sing at least four layers: [Repeat], [Autoplay], [Silence], [Barrier]. Obviously, call Ha-yul too and wallpaper the entire train car with doll threads."
"Eek, those spiderwebs are kinda...?"
"Fooooool! If you die, the Peninsula's done. Do you even grasp your position?"
"Um, well.... Yeah. Okay. Sorry...."
"Sorry's fine. Wait—no, on second thought, singing Song Enchantment before bed isn't practical."
"Ah! Right, that's exactly what I was saying...!"
"So we need an ironclad fortress. Don't worry, Dang Seo-rin. I'm not asking you to abandon your precious train. I'll just retrofit this train into the world's strongest fortress."
"...."
Dang Seo-rin eyed me like [Why's this kid suddenly so annoying?], but I cleanly ignored it.
In the end, not just my hideout, but Three Thousand Worlds' train got refitted into "Ultimate Weapon—Train Cannon Fortress—Galaxy Express 999." Now even a horde of assassin grandpas couldn't touch it.
And so, the 7th year.
"Yawn. Undertaker, look over there."
"Hm? Ah, shooting stars. Probably the meteor swarm that appears around this time originally."
"Yeah? So many. Nice. Too bad some bastard didn't plaster my luxury train window with iron bars and spiderwebs, or it'd be way prettier."
"...."
I had drinks with Dang Seo-rin, returned to the hideout, and fell into a sweet sleep—
"Ahh, hello everyone! Huh? The numbers are a bit low.... Anyway, you must all be shocked to be suddenly summoned here! But no worries! I'm your friendly guide from the start!"
Naturally, I regressed again.
Busan Station concourse's familiar ceiling greeted my eyes. Of course, Fairy No. 264 fluttered about cutely.
"...."
My vision blurred.
Into my ears rang SG Guy's ever-so-kind alarm.
"You fucking bastard!"