Chapter 142
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 142
Chapter Title: Swamp of Oblivion (11)
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"... Brother, I think you should meet her in person first."
"... What?"
Cha Hyun-jin's words made my vision go white.
His reaction was clearly signaling that something had gone wrong with Seo Yu-ju.
Wi Ho-yeon, who had been listening from the side, also asked Hyun-jin with a grave expression.
"Has something happened to the Master?"
"... N-no, she's not injured or anything. It's... something related to Brother Yun-seong."
I let out a quiet sigh of relief at the words that she wasn't hurt, but the follow-up left me puzzled.
"Something related to me?"
As we returned to base, the clan members greeted me warmly.
"Oppa, nothing happened, right?"
"Hyung!"
It hadn't even been a few days since we'd last seen each other, but living like one big family had made us all miss one another.
I was glad to see the kids and the other clan members too, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
I ruffled Yu-hyeon's hair as he came running up to me and spoke.
"Everything's fine. I'm just relieved you're all safe. But... where's Yu-ju?"
Seo Yu-ju was nowhere in sight.
Normally, she would have come out to greet me alongside the others.
"Ah... Oppa, um... you should go check on Sister Yu-ju in her tent..."
'Fuck.'
I had no idea what could have happened to make things like this.
Tension building, I headed to where Seo Yu-ju was. Before entering, I announced my arrival.
"... Yu-ju, I'm coming in."
Inside, I saw Seo Yu-ju polishing a spear.
"... Yu-ju?"
'What's this? She looks fine?'
The clan members had said she wasn't hurt, but from my perspective, their reactions had me worried just in case.
It didn't take long to notice something was off, though.
The way she looked at me was different from her usual gaze—like she was looking at a stranger. Even a faint wariness lingered in her eyes as she spoke.
"You're... Lee Yun-seong, right?"
"... What?"
I couldn't process what Seo Yu-ju had just said.
"Yu-ju? What did you just—"
"... Ah, sorry. Are you someone else?"
'What the hell...'
I didn't want to accept it, but I had no choice.
Seo Yu-ju had lost her memories of me.
"... You've lost your memories of me."
"I'm sorry. Hyun-jin and Yu-rim told me... that we were close..."
It felt just like the first time we'd met in the tutorial.
'Ha...'
"... I'm sorry. Are you okay?"
"... I'm fine."
"But your expression..."
Her words made my hand instinctively touch my face.
Only she could tell me what kind of face I was making right now.
'For now... I need to get a grasp on the situation.'
My feelings didn't matter at the moment.
I needed to know exactly what memories she'd lost, how much she remembered about me, and the full details.
"Do you remember anything about me?"
"No. You just feel like a stranger. Honestly, even talking to you like this feels awkward to me."
"I understand. What about the other clan members?"
"I remember them all."
'... So only her memories of me are gone.'
My head started to ache. Yu-rim had suffered severe injuries, and now Seo Yu-ju had lost her memories of me.
I hadn't experienced the first round, so I had no information on the Swamp of Oblivion to begin with.
I'd have to probe her reactions or pick up on any hints or signals she might give me to figure things out.
But with her memories of me gone, it was doubtful she'd drop any info subtly.
'Out of everyone, why just me...'
I could already sense her subtle discomfort around me.
To her, I was a complete stranger now, so it was only natural.
As I bit my lip slightly, Seo Yu-ju spoke up.
"... You're Lee Yun-seong, right?"
"Yes..."
"What exactly were we? The others said we were really close. Were we... dating or something?"
"... No, it's not like that. You and I..."
I trailed off, at a loss for words.
'Fuck, now that I think about it, what even are Seo Yu-ju and I?'
On the surface, clanmates. But we were closer than just colleagues.
'... What do I even say? That you followed me around? How do I put that?'
It hit me that I couldn't sum up our relationship in one word.
We weren't just ordinary comrades, nor lovers or anything deep—it was a tangled, complicated bond.
"... Not lovers, but precious comrades."
That was the only way I could phrase it.
At my answer that we weren't lovers, she let out a relieved sigh.
'... Well, without her memories, that reaction makes sense.'
She had no fondness or lingering affection for me now.
But setting aside whether it made sense or not, her indifferent attitude—ignoring me like she used to with other guys—stirred strange feelings.
'Ha...'
I felt like I understood how those men she'd been cold to must have felt.
Anyway, pointless thoughts aside—I needed to focus on figuring out the memory loss mechanism.
"... Yu-ju, in your memories of the tutorial, was I there?"
Regardless of memory realms, the fact that we'd cleared the second tutorial together was reality.
I needed to know if she'd lost all memories involving me entirely, or if I'd simply been erased from those memories.
Seo Yu-ju pondered my question, likely sifting through her recollections.
"......."
"... Yu-ju?"
She clutched her head with one hand and grimaced.
"Ah... no. The tutorial... I definitely did it without you..."
"... What about when you joined Eternity Clan? Was I there?"
"No. In my memories... Hyun-jin, Yu-rim, Yu-hyeon, Ha-eun, I-seo, Uncle Ho-won, Tae-woo... like that."
'I get the gist.'
It seemed less like all our shared memories were deleted, and more like I'd been removed from them entirely.
"Alright... I understand. You must be confused too, so I'll leave you be. If anything comes up, feel free to let me know."
"... Okay."
"......"
I left the tent, leaving behind this new side of Seo Yu-ju I'd never seen before.
"... Ha."
'... So this is what it feels like?'
Just one day. No, not even a full day—just a short while.
Yet it felt like my bond with Seo Yu-ju had been cleanly wiped away.
'How did Seo Yu-ju endure this? And not just from one person, but many...'
Regressors lose all the years of memories and bonds they'd built by time-leaping back.
Experiencing even a fraction of that firsthand didn't feel good at all.
The next day, something unexpected happened.
The key figures from the Zone 2 pioneering team had gathered.
Ha Yu-ri got straight to the point.
"... Father Comer has disappeared."
Father Comer had vanished without a trace.
Whether he'd sunk into the sky or the ground, we'd sent people searching since morning, but there wasn't a single clue.
"... Does this make any sense? No one found a trace, and why would that priest disappear like that?"
"We don't know why. As for no traces, it's probably because these snow-like white particles erase footprints."
"... So what do you plan to do, Ha Yu-ri? Head back to the village?"
"No. We keep moving forward."
We couldn't turn back just because one priest was missing.
While they talked, I was lost in thought—about Father Comer, specifically.
'... Is he up to something?'
From the initial fork, we'd stuck left with no more branches.
I didn't know what lay ahead, but considering Father Comer had wanted to avoid going left, there had to be something.
As I organized my thoughts, Ha Yu-ri dropped some crucial news.
"Setting aside Father Comer's disappearance for now, there's more important information."
'More important?'
"This morning, I got a message from Veritas's clan master, who was pioneering Zone 3. They encountered residents of the Swamp of Oblivion there."
Given how vast the Swamp of Oblivion was, there was no reason its residents would only be in Zone 2.
"Here's the key part. The residents said there are monsters called White Devourer and Black Devourer in the Swamp of Oblivion."
Everyone except me and Seo Yu-ju stirred in surprise.
Even I felt a bit rattled, thanks to the existence of this Black Devourer.
'I thought taking down just the White Devourer would do it... What's this Black one?'
"According to the residents, the White Devourer takes memories, and the Black Devourer takes the senses."
"... Takes memories and senses? Those monsters?"
"Yes. They said everything—our lost memories and senses—is because of these creatures."
A strange zeal gleamed in Ha Yu-ri's eyes.
"If we kill those monsters, we can recover what we've lost."
"... So catching those two ends the pioneering?"
"Can't say for sure. But to normalize the Swamp of Oblivion and succeed in pioneering, we have to eliminate them."
She was right. I didn't know if they were the final bosses, but they were definitely central.
Seo Yu-ju listening without objection confirmed it.
However...
I briefly met Seo Yu-ju's eyes.
Normally, she'd smile or grin in a situation like this, but now her face was blank.
Our eyes met for a moment before she looked away.
'......'
I turned to Ha Yu-ri with a question.
"Do you know what the monsters look like?"
"... In Zone 3, they encountered the one called Black Devourer. It's described as a massive quadrupedal black monster."
Quadrupedal suggested some kind of beast.
"Did they kill the Black Devourer?"
"No. They fought it but couldn't finish it off. They took heavy losses, but it was badly wounded too and fled."
"So..."
"It means we can take it down. At least it's not Mythic-grade."
If it were Mythic-grade, the pioneering team would have been obliterated on contact.
In other words, the White and Black Devourers were at most Legendary-grade—top-tier at that.