Chapter 134
Chapter 134
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Record of Failure
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Up until now, everything recorded in the manual had been somewhat distant from people.
Usually monsters, or places where monsters appeared.
I wondered what would happen if I recorded a person in the manual.
The manual began automatically filling with text.
[Office Manual]
[Containment Object PRV - Kim Wanwoo - Recorded by HR Team's Kim Jaeheon]
1. This object is a regressor, thoroughly prepared with countermeasures for the future.
2. Regression targets a specific point and can be fulfilled by the object's own will.
3. The way to sever regression is through excessive mental strain.
4. If a person's mind can no longer function properly, they cannot regress by their own will.
5. Afterward, the regressed idiot will be guarded by the Management Bureau.
...
Items 1 and 2 were what I had written.
But I hadn't written anything after that.
It felt like someone who had foreseen this situation had left annotations for me.
Of course, I had been aiming for excessive mental strain.
There aren't many people in the world who enjoy pain.
Most people dislike pain and try to avoid it if possible.
That's why I had paired him with Yoo Daon.
He probably wasn't an exception either.
Learned pain torments a person.
He would struggle desperately to escape the pain, leading to hasty choices unlike his usual self.
That had triggered the early save point update.
That had brought us victory.
It was a dead end.
The save had updated, the exit was blocked, and all four of us were gathered.
Unless he killed us all by himself, there was no way out of here.
[Name: - ]
[Age: 28]
[Talent: Regression]
[Abilities: - ]
[Background: 4212th Loop]
[Weakness: Recall the Gordian Knot.]
In the short exchange, he had already met countless deaths.
His actions were becoming increasingly erratic.
-Bang!
Whenever the man fired his gun, just standing still made the bullets miss.
More precisely, someone else made them miss.
-Bang!
When Jang Chaeyeon swung her hand, the bullet ricocheted away, and when Song Arin glared, the hand that had been aiming at me suddenly turned in the opposite direction.
"He's not even thinking of shooting at us."
Jang Chaeyeon shook her head.
She was right.
The man was obsessively targeting only me.
As if I were the only target.
It was strange.
The man I had seen wasn't like this.
Before rewinding time, he had been much stronger.
When he swung his hand, Jang Chaeyeon had vomited blood, and she had only been able to send us away.
But what was this now?
Even when Yoo Daon charged and attacked,
Even when Jang Chaeyeon occasionally struck his head with telekinesis,
Even when Song Arin urged him to suicide.
He was staring only at me like a madman.
"Song Arin."
"Yeah."
Song Arin stood beside me, sweating.
"Does that guy seem mentally off right now by any chance?"
...
Song Arin closed her eyes and focused for a moment.
"Yeah, he does. How'd you know?"
"It's weird."
When I first saw him, he hadn't been this shaken.
Not calm, but composed.
Even spouting nonsense, he had reason.
But now he was like a lunatic.
"He doesn't seem human."
"You just said he's disqualified from being human."
"That's true."
But that was just the meaning of the words.
If declaring someone human-disqualified made them not human, what a terrifying thought.
At least I didn't have that kind of power...
...
"Why are you suddenly looking at the manual?"
"No. Just had a sudden 'what if' thought."
Nah, it couldn't be.
Right?
"For now—"
-Bang!
The bullet grazed past me again.
"Huff... huff..."
He stared at me with bloodshot eyes.
"I see... so that's how it is..."
With a clunk, he dropped the gun to the ground.
He muttered to Yoo Daon, Jang Chaeyeon, and Song Arin as if he understood.
As we all exchanged confused glances at his sudden loss of fighting spirit,
"That's it. Now I get it."
"What do you get?"
Jang Chaeyeon stared at him as she listened.
"...Butterfly's Dream."
He pointed at Yoo Daon.
"Observer."
Then his finger pointed at Jang Chaeyeon.
"Finally, Extremist."
His finger pointed at Song Arin, then he looked at me.
"You've gathered nothing but the humans who destroyed the world."
He clutched his head and muttered.
"When I first saw you, I was a fool for only recognizing Butterfly's Dream."
"What are you talking about?"
Jang Chaeyeon muttered with a furrowed brow, but I couldn't respond to her.
I recalled the world where adult Yoo Daon existed.
And it seemed I wasn't the only one thinking that.
Yoo Daon had been constantly watching me too.
He looked at me and began laughing out loud.
"So that's it. Yeah."
"...What the hell is he saying?"
Song Arin muttered with a furrowed brow.
...
I didn't know what he was talking about either.
But there was something I had to ask.
"...The drumbeats resounding from the sky and people turning to sand."
...
"Buildings crumble, and whenever sunlight pours down, people melt away."
...
"What is that?"
He looked at me.
It wasn't the mad expression from before.
Pure terror filled his face.
"That... it's here? Already?"
"What?"
"That doesn't make sense. It can't be here now."
"You didn't summon it?"
"Me? Haha, hahaha...!"
Now he seemed completely unhinged, laughing loudly.
"So that's why I failed."
He pulled a small bead from his pocket.
[Name: Memory]
[Age: X]
[Talent: Memory]
[Abilities: Memory]
[Background: Reviving memories is a curse, but conversely, they must be used at times.]
[Weakness: - ]
Before I could react,
-Gulp.
He swallowed the bead.
At that moment,
-Thud!
"...Kuhk...!"
Something invisible flew in, and Jang Chaeyeon thrust out both hands to block it,
Vomiting blood from her mouth.
"Chaeyeon!"
"I-I'm... fine...!"
It was the same attack from when the drumbeats echoed from the sky, when she had been hit and vomited blood.
"Arin."
"He's sane right now, but not in his right mind."
Song Arin muttered as she looked at the man.
Two of his fingers were already broken.
"The moment he realized I was interfering, he snapped his fingers."
"Daon, stay by my side."
"Got it."
-Thud!
"Ke... ugh...!"
With each strike, Jang Chaeyeon's arms trembled, and she bled from her nose.
"Chaeyeon!"
"I-I'm fine."
She shook her head, wiping the nosebleed with one hand.
"I can do it."
...
She wouldn't last long.
Should I kill him here?
I looked above his head.
[Name: - ]
[Age: 28]
[Talent: Regression]
[Abilities: - ]
[Background: 127,834th Loop]
[Weakness: It's already in your hands.]
What?
As I panicked at the suddenly increased loop count,
"Kuhk...!"
Jang Chaeyeon coughed violently and fell to her knees.
"Chaeyeon!"
"I-I'm... fine...!"
A massive boulder flew in.
[Chronos's Shield: 10 seconds]
-Boom!
Yoo Daon instantly swapped places with her, spreading both hands, and a translucent barrier deflected the rock.
-Boom! Boom!
[Chronos's Shield: 10 seconds]
[Chronos's Shield: 8 seconds]
[Chronos's Shield: 5 seconds]
Even blocking the incoming attacks just in time, the boulders hurtled at tremendous speed.
Now that I knew regression was still possible, I couldn't use Critical.
...
A single window appeared before my eyes.
[Preservation: 1 use]
The preservation I had used when seeing the adult form with Yoo Daon.
But would it really be useful now?
Even if I stopped time and pinned him down, how could I finish him?
Fetch the branch chief in the meantime?
Impossible.
Subdue him?
How?
Even if I gave him a sense of relief like Song Arin did, updating the save point meant nothing.
-Boom!
"I can buy time—"
"You won't be able to."
The weight class was different. No matter that Yoo Daon had died and come back, I didn't think she could fight evenly while taking those boulders.
It was different from the last time when our bodies melted while fighting.
...
There were no choices.
[Using Preservation.]
[Critical: 2->0]
The world stopped.
More precisely, only that man stopped.
"...What is it."
Song Arin muttered in wonder.
"What just happened..."
"Kuhk...!"
"Chaeyeon, you okay?"
Jang Chaeyeon weakly nodded at my question.
"...I'm fine."
I pondered while watching the coughing Jang Chaeyeon.
I had to resolve this quickly.
How?
Really call the branch chief?
Is there enough time? Where is he now? Still dealing with the flood?
My mind raced wildly.
What I had to do. What I could do.
[It's in your hands.]
In my hands.
I looked at my hands.
The only thing there was the manual.
I slowly opened the manual.
[Office Manual]
[Containment Object PRV - Kim Wanwoo - Recorded by HR Team's Kim Jaeheon]
1. This object is a regressor, thoroughly prepared with countermeasures for the future.
2. Regression targets a specific point and can be fulfilled by the object's own will.
3. The way to sever regression is through excessive mental strain.
4. If a person's mind can no longer function properly, they cannot regress by their own will.
5. Afterward, the regressed idiot will be guarded by the Management Bureau.
The entry written without my knowledge.
And the regressor's loop count.
Critical.
Comprehension.
'In the end, without me, you can't even properly use containment objects. No different from an ordinary person with slightly better insight who can only use the manual.'
'I warned you long ago what would happen without someone who knows the future.'
He and I were acquaintances.
Even if I didn't know him, he knew me.
Knew me well.
Then, the countless mes who had met him would also know him.
But there was no way to convey that.
For an ordinary person, that is.
But.
-Flip flip flip!
The manual opened.
[Office Manual]
[Containment Object PRV - Kim Wanwoo - Recorded by HR Team's Kim Jaeheon]
1. This object is a regressor, thoroughly prepared with countermeasures for the future.
2. Regression targets a specific point and can be fulfilled by the object's own will.
3. The way to sever regression is through excessive mental strain.
4. If a person's mind can no longer function properly, they cannot regress by their own will.
5. Afterward, the regressed idiot will be guarded by the Management Bureau.
6. Time fixed, but failure.
7. Placed in perfect zero gravity, but failure.
8. Twisted save to make infinite deaths, but failure.
9. Failure.
10. Failure.
11. Failure.
...
...
...
2298. Failure.
Countless records filled the manual.
The many attempts by past mes unfolded before my eyes.
Not once had I succeeded.
But those attempts were never in vain.
Records left by dying mes in desperation, or perhaps for a greater purpose.
This was an 'arrangement left by a past dead me for me.'
For one chance. For one registration.
Someday, just once, prove that he was no longer human, quantify the comprehension.
And receive the corresponding reward.
"Right?"
There was no answer.
However.
[Your comprehension of 'Kim Wanwoo' is now perfect.]
[Critical: 1->0]
Regardless of my will, the world slowed, turning black and white.
The same situation as always with Critical.
The difference was,
...
A massive golden hourglass loomed behind the man.
-Swish...
Aiming my gun at the hourglass slowly pouring sand, as if ready to turn at any moment.
I pulled the trigger.
-Bang!
The bullet embedded in the hourglass,
-Crash!
And it shattered.