The Tales of an Infinite Regressor - Chapter 26

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Chapter 26 – Prophet III

4

Since the day the Revealer came out, my relationship with Oh Dokseo rapidly progressed.

I also became more comfortable since I stopped pretending to be a cool guy (though it was fun), and I didn’t need to be wary of Oh Dokseo, who was like a ticking time bomb psycho-pass that could turn at any moment, for twenty-four hours a day.

“Hey, let’s go.”

“Huh? Where are we suddenly going?”

“Gangnam.”

A while later, Oh Dokseo and I went out to Seoul for a drink.

Originally, south of the Han River was not a great neighborhood to stroll around due to the lack of parks. However, since the residents moved from this world to the next, it had become quite pleasant.

-Whoa?

Tall buildings stood between empty spaces. They were reminders of the caretakers of the apartments, even though the residents had disappeared.

-Roar!

In the eyes of the Ten Clans, we seemed like suspicious individuals, so they rushed towards us swinging their tentacles. Given the strange times, it was understandable for them to react strongly.

In fact, the judgment of the Ten Clans was not wrong. Unless you were someone who had undergone regression hundreds of times or had read this world like a novel in advance, what else could you be if not suspicious?

Oh Dokseo screamed “Eeek!” and hid behind me.

“Hey, are you crazy, mister? Those are Ten Clans! Why are you alone on a mission that should gather all the Awakeneds in Korea…!”

“Bigi, cut the octopus.”

I brandished my sword.

The reason why it was difficult to subdue the Ten Clans was because they had remarkable regeneration abilities. No matter how well you cut their tentacles, they quickly regenerated. It was also challenging to destroy both of their hearts simultaneously.

In other words, from the moment I learned the skill of slicing faster than their regeneration, the Ten Clans were nothing more than octopuses on a cutting board.

As I slashed through them, six buildings surrounding the Ten Clans collapsed with a thunderous noise. Oh Dokseo’s scream was drowned out by the crashing buildings and barely audible.

After all the buildings fell, it became quiet all around.

“Uh….”

Oh Dokseo murmured with a sense of disbelief.

“Is it over? Is it really over?”

“Yeah. Now that the guy you called the final boss is dead, the world is at peace. Let’s go and celebrate.”

“Wow… Mister, you’ve really become stronger.”

Oh Dokseo looked at me with a mix of admiration.

“Yet even with such power, you couldn’t prevent the world from being destroyed?”

“I couldn’t. Those Ten Clans, their regeneration abilities are remarkable, but they don’t have physical immunity or magic immunity or any fancy traits like that. They’re really weaklings, you know?”

“But still….”

Oh Dokseo’s expression hardened.

Already someone who believed in my words, after this incident, Oh Dokseo completely trusted me.

Oh Dokseo disbanded her party, which she had worked so hard to build. I didn’t think it was necessary, but Oh Dokseo was unexpectedly firm about it.

“No matter how much I build up my power, I wouldn’t have been able to fight against the Ten Clans. But you, mister, managed to defeat him alone. So, my party seems meaningless, doesn’t it? It’s better to change our strategy to support you as much as possible.”

Whether Oh Dokseo’s judgment was right or wrong, it provided a reason to part ways with Koyori.

Upon hearing the order to disband the party, Koyori had a very disappointed expression (at least that’s how I perceived it).

“I wanted to be with you, Party Leader, and Chief Healer… Do we really have to part like this?”

“Ah. If it’s you, Yori Unni, even if we go together… Ow!”

When Oh Dokseo was about to mutter something strange, I pinched her arm. I had explained to her in detail how fearsome Koyori could be when the two of us were together. But now that the moment to say goodbye was approaching, she seemed to be brainwashed again.

Finally, Oh Dokseo snapped out of it.

“Ah, sorry! Yori Unni! I was talking about becoming this mister’s disciple for a while! Since this mister insists on only having one disciple, I don’t think I can move around with you!”

“Hmm.”

Oh Dokseo bowed her head, genuinely apologetic.

Koyori looked at her silently. Then she turned to me, gazing at my face. If I said the shadow of red flesh had appeared in her crimson eyes, was I overreacting?

“It can’t be helped. Relations between master and student are as important as those between parents and children. An outsider like me can’t interfere with that.”

Saying so, Koyori spoke to me with a content that endeared her to me while still looking straight at me. Her gaze didn’t even flinch.

“Well then, I’ll take my leave.”

“Really…?”

“Yes. Even if we part now, I have a feeling our connection won’t be severed. I’m sure we’ll meet again someday. Both of you, even though the world has become like this, I hope you find happiness.”

Koyori gracefully bowed her waist like a noble lady taking her leave, taking a few steps back. Without adding a single word, she descended the hillside alone.

Soon, Koyori’s figure disappeared down the slope.

“Phew…”

It seemed like the tension had eased, as Oh Dokseo melted away with a sigh. Even her cap, which represented Oh Dokseo’s true self, was halfway off.

“…So, what you said was really true, mister. What’s up with that? Until you brought it up, I didn’t even think about it, but suddenly I was like, ‘Why am I acting so coldly toward Yori Unni?’”

“That’s how it goes. Still, I’m glad you understand the importance of master and student relationships.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? Even though it’s a master and student relationship, it can be dangerous for a man and a woman to wander around alone together. So, I told you to be careful.”

“…?”

“…?”

We turned to face each other, then quickly looked away, towards the hill where Koyori had descended. Since we had just seen her going down, we should now see her coming up the opposite hill.

The cicadas chirped.

No matter how long we waited, Koyori’s figure didn’t appear coming up the hill.

5

We wandered through a crumbling world.

I didn’t particularly want to describe the decay in detail. Some astute readers may have already noticed that I intentionally avoided such descriptions.

Of course, Korea was relatively safe thanks to the actions of the Saintess. But the Saintess’s influence only reached Awakeneds. The majority of the world’s population, ordinary people, were beyond the Saintess’s control.

Plundering, arson, violence—humans who had lost their loved ones and were raising pets who had lost their owners to fill the void, the militarization of political factions and the politicization of military units, the fingertips of the poor, the first carriers of historical pandemics—unhappiness was endless.

I only dealt with unhappiness that I could handle.

The weight of unhappiness that I couldn’t handle was transferred to other people’s hearts. I didn’t become a regressor to become a host for pandemics.

“Hmm. The novel I read… So, the one where you’re the protagonist, ‘[All-Purpose Regressor’s Perspective],’ it was just serialized up to episode 30.”

One day, Oh Dokseo said, wiping away something resembling blood from her face. In fact, it wasn’t blood but crimson flower petals called Wudambara, a parasite of a vicious epidemic. I will mention this in the next run.

“Episode 30?”

“Yeah. No matter how interesting a novel looks, if it’s less than 30 episodes, I never read it. You never know when the author might stop serializing. Wasn’t it about two or three days before the gate opened in Seoul? That’s when I started reading it.”

Oh Dokseo and I had similar tastes. Instead of discussing unhappiness, we often talked about each other’s hobbies.

“Where did you come across that novel?”

“Just? It’s just that on the web novel platform I frequently use, there’s this thing called ‘pre-releases’… Well, pre-releases are like adding to your favorites. Anyway, when I opened the novel app, it was suddenly marked as a pre-release.”

“…Does that mean there’s an author creating ‘[All-Purpose Regressor’s Perspective]’?”

“I don’t know, really.”

Oh Dokseo chewed on the gum.

“In fact, I don’t remember pre-releasing the last episode. But since my list of favorites easily exceeds 200, I just thought I forgot about it. But looking back now, it might have become a pre-release without even realizing it… Ah.”

As we walked through Onyang City, a large dog that seemed to have lost its owner approached. Oh Dokseo hugged the dog.

Our party of two suddenly had one more member.

“In my opinion, that’s your ability.”

“Ability?”

I said this one day when I sneaked into a department store occupied by a guild to collect pet food. Fortunately, the pet section had lax security.

“There’s a person named Seo Gyu. His ability is to create and manage internet communities. Abilities of Awakeneds vary greatly, so it wouldn’t be strange if your ability manifested as ‘reading novels.’”

“But, my ability has already been identified as ‘[Barrier Generation],’ right?”

“You’re a multi-ability user.”

“Huh? Really? Isn’t that setting extremely rare?”

“It’s rare, yes. But in life, you find that the 1% probability is more common than you think.”

“Wow, indeed… Hmm. So, my ability actually has one more aspect, and it manifested as reading novels…”

“For convenience, I call your ability ‘[Serial Publication Urging].’”

“Serial Publication Urging…”

Woof, Darkness (the dog’s name) barked. The sound echoed faintly in the darkened department store.

Oh Dokseo hushed him, but it was already too late as the patrolling guards had heard.

“Oh, danger…”

“Let’s scram.”

While clearing out the guild occupying the department store was no big deal, they would later join the front lines to fight for humanity. We quickly fled.

Woof! Woof! Darkness happily snuggled into Oh Dokseo’s arms.

“So, instead of Serial Publication Urging, maybe my ability is more like [Prophecy]?”

A few months later, on our way back from a meeting with the Guild Union, Oh Dokseo said.

“Prophecy?”

“Yeah. Knowing your story is essentially the same as predicting the future, right? In novels, prophets often observe the future like scenes from a movie or something, but in my case, the prophecy manifested in the most familiar form of web novels. How about that? Doesn’t it make sense?”

“Hmm.”

It definitely made sense.

But if Oh Dokseo’s ability is [Prophecy], a lingering question remained unanswered.

“So why didn’t any signs appear until the 555th run?”

“Huh?”

“You might not notice it, Oh Dokseo, but from my perspective, this run is quite unusual. To put it in your terms, it’s like a character who was just an extra suddenly awakened to the ability of [Prophecy].”

“Well, the tone is a bit… But yeah, it does seem strange.”

Oh Dokseo rubbed his chin.

“Maybe it’s just because it happened to be the 555th run? It seems like a special number. 555. Besides, my name is Oh Dokseo.”

“But isn’t it unlikely that awakening would happen just because it’s the 555th run? It’s not like it’s a number game.”

“Hmm. What is it, really? Why didn’t I approach you until the 555th run…?”

Oh Dokseo chuckled.

Our questions were answered on a distant yet near day.

It was when, as usual, the 555th run ended in failure and turned into the 556th run.

[Oh Dokseo: Wow. Busan Station concourse. I saw this in a novel! The fairy of the tutorial is about to appear and smack the head of the guy Schouting ‘Hey, you fucking b****’… Huh? Huh? What’s this? Why is the protagonist suddenly coming towards me?]

This time, I approached Oh Dokseo first. Of course, it was to block Koyori’s intrusion.

Oh Dokseo was greatly surprised by the sudden event. However, as she quickly trusted my words after Schowing her decimating the Ten Clans in the previous run, she believed me.

And she learned an amazing fact.

“But, sir. Is it okay for me to wander around like this?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“That, what was his name… Schopenhauer? Anyway, don’t you have to join that old man, Schopenhauer or something, who’s supposed to be the Black Star?”

I widened my eyes.

“Do you know Old Scho? You?”

“Huh? Of course. He’s in the novel.”

In the previous runs, Oh Dokseo never mentioned the old man Scho. Although I told her about another regressor, it was just a story from a different perspective, as Oh Dokseo had only encountered the content up to ‘Episode 4’ in the novel.

The first time I met Old Scho was in ‘Episode 6.’

But now, Oh Dokseo mentioned Old Scho before I did.

The implication of this fact was clear.

‘Has the novel Oh Dokseo read… been serialized further?’

I looked at the other person seriously.

“Oh Dokseo. How many episodes of the novel you read have been serialized?”

“Huh? Umm, probably… around 32 or 33 episodes? Around that.”

“…!”

It was confirmed.

As the episodes progressed, Oh Dokseo’s ‘novel’ had increased in serialization. In the previous episode, the novel had only progressed up to a meager 30 episodes, but this time, at least 2 more episodes had been added.

The criteria for this ‘increasing serialization’ were almost arbitrary, as if at the whim of a spectator. While Oh Dokseo had only added one episode at most during my 60 runs, she had even added two runs when only one episode had aired. It was truly unpredictable.

To find out exactly what criteria were used to increase serialization, more investigation was needed. But for now, there was one thing that was certain.

‘This child is following the rails of my life.’

I shivered.

6

With slightly slower steps.

At a pace slightly delayed from my life.

But with a clear momentum, Oh Dokseo was following me.

Perhaps Oh Dokseo hadn’t read the novel until it reached 30 episodes. She had said she wouldn’t even bother with works that had fewer episodes than 30. So, it wasn’t until the point where 30 episodes had accumulated that Oh Dokseo ‘first’ read the novel. That was what happened in the last 555th runs.

Oh Dokseo’s prediction was correct. Her ability was [Prophecy].

She had simply wielded her ability for 555 runs without even realizing it.

‘But it’s not a perfect prophecy ability.’

According to Greek mythology, there was a god named Prometheus who was also a prophet and had a younger brother.

Epimetheus.

Unlike his brother, whose name means ‘forethought,’ Epimetheus means ‘afterthought.’ The two brothers became the origins of the terms ‘prologue’ and ‘epilogue.’

Oh Dokseo realized her prophecy as Epimetheus.

Her prophecies were never quick. She was a slower prophet than any other. She followed in the footsteps I had taken a long time ago, following me with a time difference of about 5,000 years.

But despite that, Oh Dokseo was faithfully following behind me, step by step.

When I passed the 555th run, she was on the 5th run.

When I passed the 560th run, she would be on the 11th run.

‘So someday—really in the distant future, will the day come when Oh Dokseo herself will step on the 555th run?’

This story was not a fictional novel.

It was the story of this world where Oh Dokseo lived.

Meeting me, the protagonist, and traveling the world together, dealing with the guilds, and adopting a pet.

All these facts would one day be serialized in Oh Dokseo’s novel, and Oh Dokseo would read it.

I realized that future and shivered slightly. I even felt a faint illusion, as if a ray of light had dawned on a world where destruction seemed inevitable.

“…Sir, why are you suddenly like this?”

Oh Dokseo tilted her head at my reaction.

Suddenly, my right forearm felt itchy.

Over the expression of not understanding the English, the words of Tang Seorin overlapped and flowed.

– You have dreams similar to mine.

– You are repairing the broken rails of the world that has been destroyed. The rails that were destroyed by the Ten Clans. The abandoned tracks destroyed by other monsters. If we repair them one by one, someday the tracks will connect from station to station.

– Other people will be able to walk along that path too.

Yes, in the end, Tang Seorin was right.

What she muttered at that time was nothing but hope, and my acceptance of her will was nothing more than harboring the same wish.

But now, after more than five thousand years have passed, finally, reality has caught up with our hopes.

‘In that case.’

I embraced the tremor in my heart.

‘My job is to wait until this child catches up with me.’

Until when? Until Oh Dokseo arrives at the train station named Episode 555.

That episode was like Pandora’s box. When Oh Dokseo realizes that the ‘novel’ she read is actually the rails unfolded in reality, this world will undoubtedly change decisively.

One more enjoyable waiting was added to my life as an infinite regressor.

Therefore, I waited.

Run 556 ended.

Run 557 ended.

“Hey! Sir! You shouldn’t just abandon Old Man Scho like that!”

When we reached Episode 581, Oh Dokseo Shouted.

Perhaps she had read a scene in the latest serialization where Old Man Scho took an indefinite ‘vacation.’

I chuckled.

“Who said anything about abandoning anyone.”

There was nothing more unjust than this. Me abandoning Old Man Scho? It was Old Man Scho who abandoned me. And I never gave up on Old Man Scho even once.

It was difficult to confuse the relationship between cause and effect, suspect and victim.

But interpreting and commenting on the novel was always the reader’s prerogative.

As the latest serialization was updated and the episodes progressed, Oh Dokseo commented to me each time.

“Wow. How do I defeat this boss monster, Wudanbara?”

“No way! Were all the prophecies lies?”

“Creating a community ability? What a ridiculous ability….”

“This guy’s just a crazy attention seeker… I really don’t get along with people like this.”

“An online game weirdo? Wow, seriously. Did such a gimmick even exist? It wasn’t mentioned in the original work.”

“…? Who’s this Koyori guy? Is she human? Or a monster?”

Oh Dokseo screamed or lamented as if a reader was leaving comments to an author.

Even though I wasn’t the author.

But I graciously accepted Oh Dokseo’s comments. Though I was still like a child despite being over five thousand years old, I knew well enough to allow others to step into the boundaries of my life.

“Come on. Oh Dokseo.”

Come quickly.

You may be slower than me, but your steps are faster than anyone else’s.

Come and walk on the failures I’ve experienced, the strategies I’ve created, and my life story.

My life was originally for others, but now it’s also for you.

Of course, there wasn’t only joy in this waiting.

Finally, Oh Dokseo reached Episode 52, which means she read up to the part where I established the International Convenience Store with the fairies.

From then on, Oh Dokseo’s gaze towards me changed significantly.

“Sir.”

“What is it?”

“Do you know something? You seem totally crazy, sir.”

“…”

“And ease up on SGnet. Talk about Three Kingdoms a bit less.”

“Oh Dokseo, there’s a reason why I bring up the Three Kingdoms plot points. If I don’t talk about the Three Kingdoms, some weirdo…”

“Okay, okay. You smell really strong for your age, sir. No, rather, is it actually age-appropriate behavior? How old are you now?”

“…”

I quietly sipped my coffee, exercising my right to remain silent.

Since I knew better than anyone else that struggling for an image that was already at its lowest point was futile.

Yeah.

Saying this might sound a bit arrogant, but sometimes, very occasionally, I miss Oh Dokseo, who used to mistake me for a cold but cool regressor in the world.

A bad habit.

You should try getting older like me, too.

– Prophet. The End.

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