A Regressor's Confession
Regression.
Turning back time.
I recounted the situation right before I reversed time in a calm tone.
The era of destruction.
The vast majority of humans who never received a constellation’s favor were slaughtered by the Old Gods.
The very foundation of the dimension called Earth—its ether—was devoured by the Babel Tower.
A living hell had descended, and that was how the world ended.
The end of a world where hell itself had taken form.
-So that is why you turned back time.
“It was a gamble with an insanely low chance of success.”
A bitter smile tugged at my lips.
Humanity’s strongest player.
Someone who could stand against constellations and had actually slain several of the Old Gods.
Even then.
While gathering the essences of time-related constellations through Devour, I had nearly died more times than I could count.
The essences I absorbed kept running wild at every moment.
“I should have taken strong essences slowly, over time… but there was never any breathing room.”
I wandered a world already collapsing, collecting holy relics one by one.
Even that wasn’t enough. Humanity’s final desperate squad stormed the Babel Tower and hammered on the gates of the Pantheon.
The Old Gods’ pursuit.
Clashes with beings from other dimensions.
After overcoming crisis after crisis, we finally reached the Twilight Altar, where the Old Gods kept their sacred relics.
At that point, we had no time left whatsoever.
-The miracle known as regression. Truly a shocking secret.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
I forced down the sigh trying to escape.
Becoming Nyx’s partner was also a product of my regression.
In the original timeline, the Brazilian high ranker Antonio had been the master of the Shadow Orb.
I had stolen the opportunity that should have gone to him and met Nyx instead.
“If you’re disappointed, I understand. But I will still do everything I can to uphold our contract.”
Instead of answering, Nyx simply stared at me.
A heavy silence pressed down on the room.
Just as I waited for her reply—
Nyx reached out with her small right hand and gently ruffled my hair.
Her hand was so dainty that I barely felt its weight, yet to me that faint pressure felt impossibly heavy.
“Are you not upset?”
“Technically, I deceived you.”
“You weren’t there.”
“In the original timeline, the relic’s owner wielded the power of shadows rather than Polar Night.”
The Shadow Orb was an artifact that granted command over shadows—one step below Nyx’s authority as the night itself.
Antonio had become Brazil’s high ranker using that shadow power, essentially a pale imitation of Polar Night.
“When you phrase it like that, it becomes too easy for me to accept.”
“Why are you suddenly calling me dull?”
My mouth opened and closed without sound. Words clogged my throat; I wanted to speak but nothing came out.
Only after several deep breaths did my voice finally return.
“Ah, no… that’s not…”
“Anyone would be flustered if they suddenly heard something like that.”
A god who had reached the realm of the Protogenoi—a conceptual deity—had just spoken those words. I didn’t know how to respond.
“There you go again.”
Anyone listening would think she had just confessed.
Nyx was the great Goddess of Night.
There was no way she could harbor such feelings toward a mere mortal like me.
Even so, her words gave me a glimpse of how she truly saw me.
I had to answer that sincerity.
“I’m glad I met you too. After regressing, you’ve been the greatest stroke of luck I’ve had.”
“That’s why I shared my secret with you.”
Nyx smiled brightly. Her smile seemed to illuminate the entire room.
We stared into each other’s eyes in silence for a long while.
* * *
News of Zhang Wufei’s death shook the entire world.
He had been considered one of the two strongest players alongside Ellen Taylor.
That he had died during a Gate Break was shocking enough, but when it was revealed that the Yeokcheon Guild suffered zero casualties, the controversy exploded.
“Master, look at this. The article says Zhang Wufei lost to you.”
“That reporter’s insight is actually pretty sharp.”
I gave a short laugh.
Below the article Jiyoung showed me were all sorts of curses.
Those were the milder comments. No need to describe the rest.
The death of China’s rank one player.
Back home, the power struggle between guilds had grown fierce in the aftermath.
The leaderless Nine Dragons Syndicate was now an empty shell. Several promising players had already reached out to other guilds.
“You should consider yourself lucky, Ping Lei.”
“Hmph! If I had been at my great master’s side, he would not have fallen so easily!”
“Want to test that theory?”
When I crooked my finger, Ping Lei recoiled in horror.
Easy to enter, not so easy to leave.
Blood Intoxication
A crimson aura flickered around my fingers.
Ping Lei, who had been backing away, was yanked forward like a magnet.
“Attacking without warning is too much!”
His qi-infused staff flew toward my head.
“You said you wanted to test it.”
I deployed the power of Polar Night, interfering with the staff’s trajectory and deflecting it. Then I lightly tapped Ping Lei’s wide-open abdomen.
BOOM!
With a thunderous sound, Ping Lei flew backward. The defensive magic installed in the training hall activated, saving him from serious injury.
“Uwek!”
“You’re not even that hurt, yet you’re throwing a tantrum.”
After the bloody battle in the Dunhuang Desert, the guild members had quickly returned to their usual selves.
“Yeah. That guy was originally supposed to survive all the way to the era of destruction.”
China’s strongest player, Zhang Wufei.
Because he placed the safety of his country and the Nine Dragons Syndicate above all else, he had become a massive obstacle to humanity uniting its strength.
And that wasn’t all.
He had backed Ping Lei and helped the boy seize control of a large portion of the Black Network.
“He couldn’t be rehabilitated. Killing him when the chance appeared was the right choice.”
“No. It will get better.”
I spoke with conviction.
Less than a year after my regression, major changes from the original timeline had already begun.
The giant who once ruled China’s underworld, Ping Lei, had been rehabilitated and reborn as a true martial artist.
Even Enrique—who had been both a Monarch and an enemy of humanity—had stepped off the wrong path.
“I can’t change everyone. But so far, things have improved.”
“I’ve always been like this.”
The future was changing moment by moment.
As Nyx pointed out, there would eventually be a limit to the advantage my pre-regression knowledge could provide.
The aftermath of Zhang Wufei’s death and the collapse of the Nine Dragons Syndicate would create waves so large that even I, who knew the original history, could not easily predict them.
“Not every piece of information has to be used directly.”
“There’s a place I want to invest in.”
Rayon Corporation.
In the previous timeline, it was the company that developed spatial leap technology.
Originally it would only be commercialized ten years later, creating a worldwide warp network.
In this life, things would be different.
I immediately dialed Ellen.
The moment the ringtone stopped—
Her agitated voice rang loudly through the receiver.
“Executive Director Taylor, please calm down.”
“There are probably many ears listening on both sides of this call.”
Her ragged breathing slowly steadied.
Her habit of losing all composure when excited hadn’t changed at all.
“I didn’t call to receive an apology. We can talk about that later.”
Ellen’s voice burned with competitive spirit.
Two months ago we had fought with everything we had and still failed to decide a winner.
That was probably why she suspected I was behind Zhang Wufei’s death.
Getting excited at the thought of crossing fists with me again—she really never changed.
“I was planning to meet you soon anyway, so this works out perfectly.”
“I want to invest in the American company Rayon Corporation.”
“If it were a simple investment, yes.”
I paused for a moment.
She was probably already looking up information on the company I mentioned.
After roughly thirty seconds of silence, I continued.
“On the condition that I invest my entire fortune, I want to meet Rayon Corporation’s CEO.”
As expected, she had already finished her investigation.
This would make the conversation much easier.
“My intuition is good. Would that be difficult?”
“Then please pass the message through a representative.”
The call ended with a click.
She must have gone straight to training, eager for the next time we could fight.
The future was changing.
The first step to draw that flow toward my side would be the investment in Rayon Corporation.