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Chapter 210

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The Opposite VII

I bit my lip.

"...They\'re rushing because I found them."

"Huh, huh?"

"The area near Guduk Mountain is the Sword Mountain Hell, and what\'s descended in the square is the Boiling Hell. They took out Valhalla at the Monument of Crystal, and now they\'re bringing in Buddhist hells."

Even as I explained to my comrades, my mind was relentlessly proposing and discarding strategies to overcome this hell.

\'Too fast.\'

It\'s been only a day and a half since I began moving seriously after witnessing the abnormality in Kim Joocheol\'s dream.

The Alien God, who had been quietly lurking until now, suddenly launched a full-scale offensive as if it had been waiting for this moment.

Yes.

From the start, the Alien God must have been hiding inside the Monument of Crystal, biding its time for hundreds or thousands of years, just for this.

Just as I, a regressor, had shown the anomalies what I\'m capable of through my accumulated experiences in multiple lives.

This time, the Alien God successfully ambushed me.

"H-Hyung, something’s wrong."

Even Seo Gyu, who usually bluffed in most situations, was trembling.

Of course, it was understandable since people were screaming as they were boiled alive in the water right beneath the headquarters building.

"The people aren’t dying. They should be dead, boiled in molten metal... but they keep regenerating."

"Because it’s hell."

I replied.

"The Alien God has defined this world as hell. And in hell, no one dies."

"They don’t die?"

"Right. Because hell is where people who are already dead go. They just suffer eternally. From now on, no one can die――"

At that moment.

A lightning bolt of realization struck my mind.

\'Ah. Ahhh!\'

Was that why?

Was that why!

"――Because no one can die, it’s become hell!"

"What?"

"Think about it, Seo Gyu! I’m a regressor! Because I keep regressing, everyone in this world has been placed in a state where they \'die but don’t die\' continuously. For hundreds, even thousands of years!"

I clenched my teeth.

"The Alien God has used the state of this world against us! It determined that because no one can die in this place, it’s not reality but hell. It redefined the world in its own way!"

"...!"

That\'s it.

A reversal of perspective. A Copernican shift.

To the anomalies, a regressor like me is extremely troublesome.

No matter how powerful the anomalies are, a regressor can simply reset the time with a \'click\' until the anomalies are defeated.

No matter how much they struggle, anomalies are destined to lose to the regressor. They can never escape this conclusion.

――But what if they could turn the regressor\'s regression against him?

Instead of "this [real world] repeats endlessly because there is a [regressor]"...

This place is [hell], where people live a "life of dying but not dying," and therefore time repeats endlessly...

A simple difference in perspective.

A difference in interpretation and viewpoint.

Just by assuming that this world is not \'reality\' but \'hell,\' they could fully exploit the regressor’s ability.

That Alien God, the goddess of the night, Nut, didn’t deny the regressor. Instead, it affirmed my regression and piggybacked on it.

As long as I don’t give up my regression ability and continue to reincarnate, [this world can never stop being hell].

\'Unbelievable.\'

My whole body tingled.

Shock. And awe.

\'It used me! Instead of consuming me, it planted a seed of evil within my power and used it to corrupt the world!\'

Seeing my stunned expression, both Sim Aryeon and Seo Gyu grew even more anxious. They were kids who relied heavily on me psychologically.

Amidst the ringing in my ears, the cold voice of the Saintess reached my eardrums, as calm as ever.

"Doctor Jang. Can’t you just regress and try again later?"

"...Probably not. As I explained to Chief Noh Doha, this Alien God is parasitizing my power itself."

It had dug into the Crystal Monument where the [Time Seal] was placed, gnawing away at the sealed souls.

Using the characteristic of a world where [regression] occurs, it had summoned the concept of hell into this world.

In other words...

"Even if I regress, the situation won’t improve. In fact, it’ll probably get worse."

"Why is that?"

"Right now, we’re at least united as the Regression Alliance. But if I regress, our relationships will reset. Meanwhile, Nut’s hell..."

"…Will continue to persist. The Crystal Monuments with the [Time Seal] will remain unaffected by regression and continue to exist."

"Yes. And as you can see, Nut can summon hell into the world in less than a day if she wants. But it would take us far more than a day to rebuild our bonds to where they are now."

"...Regression, which has always been on our side, has now become the enemy’s ally. Against this Alien God Nut."

"Exactly."

Checkmate.

To break this checkmate...

"The only way is..."

"What’s the way?"

"For me to get infected by the World Tree Udumbara as soon as I regress."

Udumbara.

That virus known as the New Buddha stripped an Awakened of all their powers.

Therefore...

"If I do that, I’ll lose all my powers, including the [Time Seal]. [Regression] included."

"......"

That’s why, almost always, after regressing, I would go to Onyang to eradicate Udumbara.

Because Udumbara had the potential to kill a regressor.

The Saintess stared at me with her blue eyes.

"Then... what will happen?"

"I don’t know. I probably won’t regress anymore. The world might just stay in ruins after being destroyed by some anomaly and remain that way forever."

"......"

"The worst-case scenario is if the world continues to regress regardless."

"Huh? ...Ah."

The Saintess blinked.

"You mentioned someone named Schopenhauer before. He was also a regressor, right?"

That’s right.

There were two regressors in this world.

If a regressor is the switch that triggers the regression of the world, even if I disappear, there would still be one switch left.

And now, this switch is completely pressed down, fixed in place without any chance of being tampered with.

Moreover,

“Perhaps the [regression ability] and [the world\'s regression] are separate things.”

Actually,

I\'ve kept a certain hypothesis in the back of my mind for a long time.

“No, in this case, it might not be [the world’s regression] but rather [the world’s repetition].”

Let’s imagine that time passes and the world ends.

And then the world starts over again from the beginning: the formation of the universe from the Big Bang, the birth of the first galaxy, the creation of the Earth, life emerging from the sea, and one of those life forms eventually crawling onto land—all of it.

Eventually, humans are born, civilization begins, and cities are built.

And one day, an Doctor Jang is born, eventually heading to Busan Station.

…As you all know, I have the [perfect memory ability].

In the scenario I described, what if this perfect memory ability involves [transmitting memories at the moment of awakening]?

Wouldn\'t that result in a phenomenon exactly identical to [regression]?

“…But didn’t you say that your perfect memory ability was awakened after the 4th turn?”

“The abilities of the awakened can be strengthened. It could be that my ability only fully awakened in the 4th turn.”

And,

there is a terrifying aspect to this hypothesis.

“Let’s summarize the story.”

I voiced that aspect.

“If I become infected with Udumbara, then all the people who have been [sealed in time] until now will be freed. And I will no longer retain the memories of previous turns, beginning the tutorial dungeon at Busan Station again.”

Time passes.

“As time goes on, Old Man Scho returns from his vacation. And countless events occur, unknown to the current me.”

Time passes.

“One day, Old Scho experiences something that damages his regression ability. Maybe he becomes infected with Udumbara, or becomes the target of some anomaly that surpasses regression… And so the world is completely destroyed.”

Time passes.

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“And finally, in some distant future where the concept of \'regression\' is unknown, my abilities will awaken again at Busan Station.”

In other words,

everything begins from the start.

“I will perceive that as the first turn.”

And. And. And.

“In the second turn, the third turn, and then in the fourth turn, I gain the perfect memory ability, eventually meeting Old Scho…”

And someday,

“Eventually, this moment I perceive as the 267th turn will arrive.”

“……”

“…Perhaps I’ve been repeating the turns I’ve experienced so far.”

This is the fundamental trauma that the regressor known as Doctor Jang has carried with him for a very long time.

A torment he has silently endured ever since discovering that Udumbara can erase the abilities of the awakened.

The possibility that the 267th turn is actually 267×2, 267×3, 267×267, 267×267², 267×267³.

The fear that my entire life might be nothing more than one giant ‘tale of failure.’

A fear known only to regressors.

If this hypothesis is correct, then yes.

The decree of Nut, the goddess of night, was spot on.

The world is indeed a hell.

-Aagh! Aaaaagh!

-I don’t want to live! Please kill me!

-Someone, please kill me!

Hundreds of people were still melting in molten iron beneath the headquarters building.

The screams of people echoed against the translucent glass membrane that all humans are born with—our eardrums.

The hell that descended upon this world was rapidly spreading. All the trees and flowers in Busan had turned into sharp blades, and the plazas and alleys were filled with seething molten iron.

In the Buddhist view, hell has no end.

The hell of the decapitated mountain, the boiling hell, the freezing hell, the hell of swords, the hell of dismemberment, the hell of poisonous snakes, the hell of giant axes, the iron bed hell, the windstorm hell, the black darkness hell, from which one falls into the eight hells of scorching heat, black victory, convergence, screaming, great screaming, extreme heat, great extreme heat, and avici, and finally the eight cold hells of cold, extreme cold, burning frost, intense chill, blue lotus, red lotus, and great red lotus. Those who fall into the great red lotus hell must endure 25 oceans worth of 6,000 quadrillion years before they can finally be reborn.

25 oceans, 6,000 quadrillion years.

Infinity.

If I don’t regress here, an infinite hell will unfold, and if I do regress and become infected with Udumbara, an infinite regressor’s hell will unfold.

‘This is…’

I tightly gripped Doha’s cane-sword.

The cane-sword that Noh Doha made for me on the 100th turn. It made me believe that fate, like time, could smile upon me.

But today, the thickness of the world I tread with that cane felt unbearably thin.

‘Is this my epilogue?’

Clench.

Someone placed their hand over mine. Another hand rested on the back of my hand that gripped the cane.

I turned to look beside me.

“Doctor Jang.”

It was the Saintess.

“There’s a flaw in that hypothesis.”

“What?”

“You\'re not someone who creates hells, Doctor Jang. Even if the world is repeating, you’re not living an eternal life of reincarnation. No, to be more precise, you are not repeating eternal life at this moment in time. There is a fatal flaw in your hypothesis.”

“…How can you be so sure?”

“Because.”

A pair of pale eyes.

Eyes that always stayed a step away from the world\'s chaos, quietly observing it like a still water, were staring straight at me.

The depth of those eyes made the screams of the people that had been battering my eardrums feel strangely distant.

Instead, what filled my ears was the calm of the water, a voice like the lapping of waves around my feet.

That water-colored gaze spoke.

Because, it said.

“Because I’m going to make that hypothesis wrong, starting now.”

I blinked.

“What? What do you mean—”

“Goodbye, Doctor Jang.”

A gentle stroke.

A warm current brushed against the back of my hand.

As if being drawn into the deep water. As if sinking into a depthless underwater world.

“I’ll see you in a little while.”

And then.

Time stopped.

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Time stopped.

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Time□□ stopped.

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Ti□□ stopped.

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Ti□□ sto□ped.

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Ti□□ □□opp□ed.

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Th□□.

And□□.

And then.

"Hello, Doctor Jang."

――It was a completely ordinary greeting.

A completely mundane tone, as if greeting someone who had just woken up from sleep, a voice the color of water spoke to me.

Bright water. Clear and regurgitated by the transparent reflection on the shore, gently touching my toes.

The sound of the sea knocking most gently on the ground.

To that sound, I opened my eyes.

In a fleeting moment, only the sensation that time had passed merely by closing and opening my eyes lightly touched my cornea.

But why?

"…Saintess?"

"Yes."

The voice caressing my eardrums felt like one I hadn\'t heard in a very long time.

The Saintess\'s hand was still holding mine. But the temperature was different. The warmth that had been there just a moment ago was now cool.

Perhaps I first sensed something was wrong because of that temperature difference.

After hearing and touching, next came the sense of sight.

The world had \'stopped.\'

"……."

The swords that had covered the entire city were holding their breath. The molten iron that had surged like a tsunami through the squares and alleyways had also stopped.

The people who had fallen into the boiling molten iron, their screams, Sim Aryeon who was looking at me worriedly, Seo Gyu with his mouth wide open, and Noh Doha who was tightly adjusting his leather gloves.

This whole hell.

Had all come to a stop.

"Ah."

A strong sense of déjà vu.

I had seen this exact scene somewhere before. The view of hell that Endless Hell showed me to break me down, the prison of time.

So, I could immediately pinpoint the cause of this \'frozen world.\'

I moved my lips.

"Saintess, could it be… that you\'ve become a Fallen?"

"Yes."

"My god."

The Saintess\'s ability [Time Stop].

It could manifest such an unbelievable power if it were to be extremely enhanced.

This was the first time I was witnessing it in reality.

In the past, during the 107th turn, the Saintess had come close to becoming a Fallen, but she had never fully awakened [Time Stop] to this degree.

"But in this turn, you didn\'t train your aura so deeply. You shouldn\'t be able to become a Fallen…."

"I did train."

The Saintess said.

"By stopping time."

"……."

"At first, even taking a few steps was difficult. It was hard to keep breathing continuously. But I kept pushing, somehow maintaining my aura."

The Saintess\'s voice was so calm that anyone else listening might think it was just an ordinary training method.

But not me.

I knew all too well how monstrously difficult that training must have been.

"No, that\'s impossible. Then your aura would also be stopped, so you\'d have to push it forward bit by bit. It\'s like taking 30 minutes, no, an hour to complete a single breath."

"Yes. It was very hard."

The Saintess nodded.

"So, it took quite a bit of time."

"If it took a long time, just how much…?"

"I didn\'t count exactly, but I think it was over 2,000 years."

"……."

My god.

The Saintess gave me a small smile, with a hint of mischief in her expression.

It was a truly rare expression and one I hadn\'t seen in a very long time.

She spoke.

"Now, I might be a little closer in age to you, Doctor Jang."

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