The Tales of an Infinite Regressor - Chapter 207

Chapter 207

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The Antagonist IV

7

Despite the onslaught from the enemy, presumably an anomaly at the level of an alien god, we did not panic.

Not only I, but the entire Regressors’ Alliance, who now hold the reins of power in Korea, remained calm.

It was only natural.

– Another virus?

– These anomalies seem to lack imagination, always relying on plagues to mess with humanity…

– So, is this one stronger than COVID?

Yes.

At this point, Korea has gained too much experience to be alarmed by an epidemic and lament the end of the world.

Through the Constellation Chat and SG-Net, we issued a notice stating, “A currently unidentified virus is rampant, so we ask all citizens to respond proficiently.”

The citizens quickly complied. Maintaining distance, isolating by neighborhood zones, creating schedules to avoid overlapping routes, and so on.

However, this ‘Return Virus’ was a bit different. It was powerful enough to scorn the preventive traditions Korea had built up over a long time.

“How on earth are we supposed to stop symptoms that spread through dreams…?”

Noh Doha summed up the difficulty in a single sentence.

“Diseases transmitted through the real world can at least be contained or dealt with, but this one spreads simply by appearing in someone’s dream, someone who’s under [Time Seal]…”

“I’ve sent the tutorial fairies into the dreams of the symptomatic.”

“Do you really think those shrieking vending machines can stop a disease…?”

“No. They can only buy us some time at best.”

In short, it’s impossible to quarantine.

No matter how composed and calm the Korean leadership was, the situation was nothing short of dire.

Without reaching the peak of aura mastery, it’s impossible for a human to go long without sleep.

Everyone sleeps, and everyone was infected through their dreams.

Even though only a day had passed, the chaos on SG-Net was enough to show how severe the situation was.

– Anonymous: [Virus] I’m losing my mind; every time I close my eyes, I keep seeing scenes of my death from previous turns.

– Anonymous: [Virus] The world is repeating, and this life is just one of countless copies.

– Anonymous: [Virus] For those who haven’t been infected yet, here’s what to expect.txt

– Anonymous: [Virus] This is hell.

The desperate pleas of those infected with the virus were pouring in.

I personally met and interviewed some of them.

The reported symptoms of the ‘Return Virus’ were generally consistent.

“The, the world is repeating! I’m sure of it! Look! I’ve definitely had this conversation with you before!”

Symptom 1: A strong sense of déjà vu.

When the symptoms were mild, it was just a slight déjà vu, but as the disease worsened, the déjà vu became overwhelming.

“Please calm down. Sir, this is the first time we’ve met. Even if there was a previous turn, we’ve never had a conversation like this.”

“N-no. You just haven’t realized it yet. Yes. You’re so calm because you haven’t realized that the world is repeating!”

“……”

Who would have thought I’d be lectured about regression in my lifetime?

As I felt a strange mix of emotions, the patient trembled and bit his nails. His pupils had already lost focus.

“Your expression… those eyes, I’ve seen them all before. It’s all useless. We’re going to die again. And repeat again. And live the same life as if nothing happened… I don’t want to die. I don’t want to live…”

“Hm.”

Symptom 2: An extreme fear of regression.

This symptom was quite odd because most people fantasize about becoming a regressor to live a better life.

In fact, this characteristic stemmed from the first symptom.

If you were really a regressor in a story, you would enjoy carving out a completely ‘new’ path compared to your previous life.

But the Return Virus was different.

The most malicious aspect of this disease is that it makes the infected feel that everything they think and do has already been ‘repeated thousands, tens of thousands of times.’

No matter how new your actions seem, it’s no use.

Whether playing a newly released game or reading a new novel by your favorite author, the infected feel they’ve experienced it all before.

Inevitably. No matter what choice you make—an overwhelming sense of déjà vu.

In other words…

“Maybe we should call it the Déjà Vu Virus rather than the Return Virus.”

And most importantly, this wasn’t about actually realizing you’ve regressed like I did.

When I questioned a patient about events from previous turns, they could only list vague details.

When asked about the future, they would just ramble incoherently.

But even if it’s all just an illusion, we can’t let our guard down.

After finishing the interview, I found Noh Doha leaning against the wall.

He looked at me.

“Today alone, 136 suicides have been discovered. There are likely many more we haven’t found yet…”

“……”

“People infected with the virus fall into two categories. Either they exhibit extreme violence, or they suffer from severe apathy. The former kills others, and the latter kills themselves. What kind of ridiculous disease is this…”

Noh Doha pulled on his black leather gloves.

Under the dim lights, the outline of his long fingers tightened clearly.

“So, what do you plan to do…?”

――Noh Doha’s question had two implications.

One was, of course, a genuine inquiry about what we should do.

No matter how elusive the tutorial fairies were, protecting the dreams of all the infected was impossible. It wouldn’t be long before all 3 million survivors in Korea would see their symptoms worsen.

And the other hidden meaning was:

– Are you going to give up on this turn?

Although the members of the Regressors’ Alliance were currently experiencing relatively mild symptoms, they would likely worsen rapidly in a few days.

Then, I might witness my cherished companions killing someone or taking their own lives.

– If you don’t want to see that, I can kill you myself.

As he had done several times before.

In certain turns I hadn’t disclosed, I had indeed been killed by Noh Doha in this manner.

“We cannot surrender.”

But not this time.

“This anomaly isn’t the kind that will be easier to conquer by starting a new round. It’s quite the opposite.”

“The opposite…?”

“The host of this plague is none other than the dreams of those I’ve eliminated with the [Time Seal]. And the [Time Seal] is immune to resets. No matter how many times I reset, the tombstones sealed in time remain exactly where they are.”

Noh Doha’s eyes widened slightly.

“Even if you reset, the plague remains trapped within those tombstones…?”

“Yes, probably.”

I nodded.

“It’s possible that the reset virus itself didn’t suddenly appear in this turn. It might have started accumulating from the moment the crystal tombstones were created. So, from the 4th turn onward, it gradually built up, mutated, and only exploded in this turn.”

“What turn did you say this was…?”

“Turn 267.”

“Damn…”

Indeed.

If my hypothesis is correct, the ‘virus’ found the only safe haven in this world, a place that persists despite the repeated turns.

Inside the [Time Seal].

A point that no matter how desperately a Regressor struggles, cannot be changed or undone.

Just like how that pink creature named Koyori coiled deep in my subconscious—likewise, the virus has established a solid final line of defense against my resets.

“No, if a Regressor can’t use the reset, then what’s the point of your existence? Other than maybe your decent face and those dead fish eyes…?”

“I make great coffee.”

“I don’t need it…”

“I can bestow power, honor, and money on a 7th-grade civil servant prosthetist in Korea.”

“Damn. I really don’t need that…”

“I can mediate when Tang Seorin and Cheon Yohwa fight. Not just anyone can do that.”

“If it weren’t for you, they wouldn’t be fighting, you piece of…”

“Hoeeek!”

The person—or rather, the being—who cut off Noh Doha’s endless tirade of sharp insults was, surprisingly, the tutorial fairy.

Fairy No. 264 suddenly appeared in mid-air, waving a magic wand around in a fuss.

“Secretary-General Comrade! It’s a big deal! A big deal, it is!”

“What? Are we out of General Sausage?”

“It’s not as terrible as that, but it’s still a significant issue…!”

I tossed the addicted fairy a General Sausage.

Fairy No. 264 happily munched on the peach-colored sausage without even peeling off the casing. Maintaining loyalty management like this, as naturally as breathing, is how you make use of the tutorial fairies.

“Hoee! While carefully monitoring the infected’s dreams under the Secretary-General’s orders…! I made an astonishing discovery!”

“What is it?”

“Seeing is believing! On-site inspections are the core duty of a communist party official! Secretary-General Comrade, come on!”

8

The places where a fairy would invite me were either a tutorial dungeon or a dream.

Since all of Korea’s tutorial dungeons had closed down, naturally, our meeting place became the dream of an infected person—in this case, the fantasy world of soccer player Kim Joocheol.

“I was managing this human’s dream with particular care under the Secretary-General’s orders!”

The fairy fluttered around.

When I first arrived, the whole place was swarming with rioters, setting everything on fire, but now it was quite peaceful.

Even the stadium was intact.

That’s because all the spectators and soccer players had fallen asleep, emitting ‘zzz…’ speech bubbles.

It was the power of the Nightmare Demon, the specialist in the world of dreams.

“To prevent the symptoms from worsening, we came up with the following method: First, put all the residents of this world to sleep, then enter their dreams, put them to sleep again, and then enter the dream within a dream and put them to sleep again and again!”

“It’s similar to how you enter the unconscious world.”

“Hoee! Exactly! As expected of the Secretary-General Comrade!”

The fairy buzzed excitedly.

“When you keep dragging an ordinary human into dreams within dreams, the dream becomes so distorted and altered that the space where the virus could thrive melts away like candle wax! We were implementing quarantine measures using this method!”

Oh, by the way, the tutorial fairies could be left inside the [Time Seal] and abandoned.

If a human were abandoned like that, they’d be lost forever, but for some reason, the tutorial fairies could enter and exit relatively freely as long as I gave them ‘permission.’

When I asked how that was possible:

– Hoee! Secretary-General Comrade may call this place a graveyard, but to us, it feels no different from a dream!

Was their response.

The fairy’s senses are quite mysterious.

“But here, here! Come with me into the dream of this entity named Kim Joocheol!”

I entered.

Kim Joocheol was sound asleep in the middle of the soccer field. Holding the fairy’s hand (still after hearing that weird lullaby), I entered Kim Joocheol’s dream.

Then,

– Did you watch the Olympic game yesterday?

– Everyone! Believe in the Goddess! Believe in the Goddess and live in heaven!

– Baaang!

– Dad, I told you not to talk about politics!

Crowds of people were bustling around, chattering and walking busily.

It had been so long since I’d seen anything like this in reality that I’d almost forgotten, but looking back, it was the scene at Seoul Station.

“Where is this…?”

People were walking around using smartphones. Cars on the road honked their horns. Students climbed the stairs of Seoul Station.

It was the kind of scene that might have been the everyday life of humanity before the world ended.

“…Is this really Kim Joocheol’s dream?”

It wasn’t that I was underestimating Kim Joocheol.

As the fairy explained before we entered, creating such a ‘detailed and rational’ scene in the unconscious was impossible.

Even with my [Perfect Memory], I found a vast desert when I stepped out of Busan Station in the unconscious world.

But what about here?

This was far too realistic for something conjured by the unconscious mind of a mere Kim Joocheol.

Even the acrid smell of exhaust from the asphalt road had a distinct texture.

As real as reality. No, it was just like reality.

“Hoee! It’s hard to define whether this is a dream or not, but let’s call it the [Reverse World]! One thing is certain!”

“And what’s that?”

“The Reverse World is as big as the Korean Peninsula, and it’s still expanding in real time! If we push a little more, it can surpass the real world, fighting!”

The fairy said.

“And not just Kim Joocheol, but pretty much anyone can connect to this place!”

“…What?”

“Infected people in the real world, every single one of them, has been abducted into this Reverse World!”

———