Chapter 127 |
Victim I
Let's talk about the end of our world again today.
Whenever fifteen years pass since the start of the regression, peace and stability slowly begin to return to the Korean Peninsula. Of course, the phrase "peace on the Korean Peninsula" has always been known to elicit different reactions from foreigners and locals alike.
"Siren? What's this? An air raid? Is the Korean War breaking out?"
"No. It's just daily life."
"What?"
While other countries peacefully harvest mackerel or herring from the sea, the East Sea's specialty was missile parts.
Even in the apocalypse, the situation wasn't much different. In Busan, the largest city on the Korean Peninsula, power outages happened almost daily, and bizarre creatures held gatherings inside and outside the city.
Experienced Koreans were prepared to humbly accept reality, thinking, "Well, it’s still peaceful enough, right?"
In most regions, the fifteenth year marked the beginning of the inevitable collapse of civilization.
[Mr. Undertaker.]
"Yes?"
[Monster waves have been detected in North Korea. It's currently assumed that they are moving south from the Gando region towards the Korean Peninsula's interior.]
Monster waves.
A phenomenon where all anomalies gather and surge like a tidal wave.
This anomaly had led to the destruction of countless nations and societies: Russia, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Mongolia, China...
Korea was no exception.
[It's been 16 hours since the monster wave was detected. The Eastern Holy State in the North Korean region continues to resist, but the final defense line is in jeopardy.]
[Final defense line breached. Battle in Pyongyang has commenced.]
[The Mo Gwang-seo Christ Cathedral has collapsed. It has now been engulfed by the monster wave. The number of awakeners in Pyongyang is rapidly decreasing.]
[Ah. There's a light coming from the cathedral. The light... It keeps flashing. It seems that Mo Gwang-seo is repeatedly experiencing death.]
[The Resurrection Church believers in Pyongyang have launched a final assault. Soon, all the awakeners observable with ‘Clairvoyance’ will be annihilated. Six, five, four, three, two… one.]
[Pyongyang, annihilated.]
[The monster wave continues to move south.]
Even if humanity managed to overcome the cycles of being slaughtered by the Ten Legs and wiped out by meteor showers, extinction was inevitable.
Danger level: 4. Ocean-class.
Monster waves were not even anomalies with unique gimmicks like the Meteor Shower or the Infinite Void.
As the name suggests, monster waves were more fittingly associated with "monsters" rather than bizarre "anomalies."
Their strength lay in one simple fact.
[The monster wave is about to enter Seoul. The number of anomalies engulfed by the wave is estimated to be around 500,000. Estimated at about 500,000.]
[Blow up the Jamsu Bridge.]
It was their overwhelming 'quantity.'
"100,000. 200,000. 500,000. In severe cases, it's almost like an army of one million. It's an anomaly that defies any strategy."
"Hmm…"
Naturally, I shared this information with the Blood Pact members every time we held a secret meeting.
Noh Do-hwa, who joined my 'Regressor Alliance' in every cycle, sighed as if it were bothersome.
"Is there no specific strategy for this?"
"There is. According to the information I've gathered so far, the first place where the monster wave occurs is Istanbul in Turkey. It appears exactly one day after I regress."
"Hooh…?"
"When the monster wave first appears in Istanbul, it's actually not that difficult to handle. It's just 1,000 anomalies gathered together."
"One thousand... Hmm, that's within the range that Awakener Undertaker could barely manage alone, right?"
"Exactly. So, in the next cycle, I plan to head straight to Istanbul with the Saintess as soon as I land at Busan Station."
The Saintess, who was quietly sipping her bagged coffee beside us, was startled and looked up.
"What?"
Noh Do-hwa and I looked at the Saintess. Then we looked at each other again.
"Is it really necessary to take the Saintess with you? The longer the constellations remain silent, the more the awakeners will go wild..."
"I also need to keep the map on and fight. It would be fine to go with support, but honestly, enjoying a trans-Eurasian trip with a high-intelligence psychopath is a bit much for me. I'll defeat it as quickly as possible and return."
"Hmm. Fine, then. I'll draft a 'protocol to endure the first month even without Awakener Undertaker and the Saintess' for the next cycle..."
The Saintess carefully raised her hand.
"Um, excuse me. I'm not comfortable with such long trips abroad. Mr. Undertaker? Captain Noh Do-hwa. My opinion is――"
The apocalypse was too harsh a time to respect the opinion of a shut-in NEET.
In the next cycle, I carried the Saintess across the Eurasian continent.
It felt as if my endless aura training had been for this very moment, and my steps literally took a different form.
"Please let me know if it gets tough."
"...! Just, a little- Mr. Undertaker, please slow down a bit-"
"I'm glad you seem to be fine."
It took just 113 hours.
It was the time needed to cross the void filled with terrifying anomalies and occasional tactical nuclear bomb drops and reach Istanbul, Turkey.
It was truly fortunate that the Saintess had mastered [Time Stop]. Even basic human necessities like sleep could be instantly resolved by stopping time for a moment.
As for me? I was fine without sleep for up to six days.
"Saintess, I'm sorry to ask immediately after arriving, but please use the awakeners' vision to let me know if you spot any remnants of the monster wave."
"...I've just decided I will never travel with you again, Mr. Undertaker."
"Don't worry. I'll take you back to Korea even faster!"
"......"
One of the most historic cities in the world, Istanbul, was now facing the peak of over-tourism due to the 'monster wave.'
Various types of anomalies, all with different characteristics, mixed like dirty water to form a tsunami. From a distance, it looked like a 'black wave.'
However, having managed to obtain a travel ticket as early as possible, the black wave was only surging in the western part of Istanbul.
At this level, I could handle it alone.
I descended.
"No way! Who are you...?"
"Thank you! Friend from afar! We will never, ever forget your help this time!"
The locals, who were planning a recapture operation across the Bosphorus Strait, couldn't contain their gratitude.
The monster wave was smoothly exterminated. Although both governments had collapsed, a renewed 'brotherhood' was formed between the Turkish and Korean people.
After filming a light national pride drama, I returned to my companions.
"Thank you for your hard work, Saintess. But isn't it meaningful that we defeated an anomaly that could have grown to an ocean-class level in the future? Let's hurry back to our homeland and deliver this good news."
"Ah... Ah..."
"I'm truly satisfied to see you happy, Saintess."
"Ah... Ah... Ah..."
We returned home safely.
Everyone was happy.
And exactly 17 years later, the entire Korean Peninsula, including Busan, was destroyed by the black wave of the monster wave.
"Damn. You, you crazy regressor. Didn't you say you exterminated them?"
"Ah, sorry."
That was the last conversation between Noh Do-hwa and me.
What went wrong?
To conclude, the 'monster wave' was not an occurrence limited to Istanbul.
It just happened to appear in Istanbul first. Under certain conditions, 'monster waves' could appear anytime, anywhere.
"What conditions are those?"
"Turns out, they occur whenever the void reaches a certain size."
In Istanbul, the void occurred in the middle of the city, similar to Seoul's case.
However, unlike Seoul, which simply wiped out the surface, Istanbul's void was abnormally large.
Even roughly measured, the void inside spanned the size of the Mediterranean Sea. The so-called 'Constantinople' void was teeming with fictional Crusader anomalies.
"Even if we somehow block the Turkish side, it’s pointless. Once civilization begins to crumble, voids appear so frequently it's almost absurd. In Germany, India, Russia, Mongolia, monster waves can occur anywhere."
"Hah...? So, how do we exterminate them...?"
"Practically speaking, it’s impossible to exterminate them."
Yes.
Even as a regressor, there was nothing I could do. The power of 'sheer numbers' was just that formidable.
"We’re struggling just to manage the Korean Peninsula. We can't possibly take care of the entire Eurasian continent."
"Well, that's true..."
"Yes. If we somehow manage to defend against the horde of anomalies coming from Manchuria, survival itself is possible."
The problem is.
"But monster waves don't occur just once; they appear continuously and periodically. Sometimes with a month's gap, sometimes weekly. Defending against waves of tens of thousands of anomalies, no matter if I take the lead, the damage will inevitably accumulate."
"......"
"Awakeners are not invincible."
As the forces were gradually worn down, the point would come when it would be impossible to stop the southward advance of the monster wave.
We could delay. We could postpone.
But one day, we would inevitably reach the 'end point.' Whether we wanted it or not.
The National Road Management Corps conference room fell silent.
Noh Do-hwa let out a hollow laugh.
"Isn't this a bit of a scam...?"
It was Noh Do-hwa’s way of laughing off the situation.
We kept this information confidential. If the future of humanity were widely known to have such a 'predetermined bad ending,' countless people would have despaired.
The Ten Legs or the Meteor Shower at least existed as entities. They could be killed.
But how could we possibly deal with an anomaly that existed as a horde? An anomaly that occurred like a natural phenomenon?
"Is there no way to use the Resurrection Church of Mo Gwang-seo...?"
The idea of using the Eastern Holy State as a puppet state was proposed against this backdrop.
From Noh Do-hwa's perspective, it would have been better to erect a 'human barrier' in the north to delay the southward advance of the monster wave, even if only slightly.
It was an effective method but not a perfect solution.
I was deep in thought.
"Ummm."
Cornered on all sides.
As the cycles continued, I gradually accumulated strategies for dealing with other anomalies while constantly pondering a final solution for the monster wave.
Yet, no brilliant ideas came to mind.
As I sat on the café hideout sofa mimicking Rodin’s 'The Thinker,' Sim Ah-ryeon with her green hair approached.
"Guild leader..."
"Yes? What's up?"
"Remember the Meteor Shower anomaly you mentioned last time? I finished drawing the illustration today... Can I post it on the SG Net board under the name ‘The Librarian of the Great Library’?"
Our Ah-ryeon wants to play Constellation again.
I nodded generously. After witnessing Ah-ryeon reduced to 16-bit pixels in the 'Logout Game,' I had become somewhat lenient towards her.
"Go ahead."
"Wow! Guild leader, you're the best! Hehe. It's so fun to act like a constellation by predicting an anomaly that hasn't appeared yet...!"
As Ah-ryeon rolled away to her home (the world of the net), a sudden inspiration struck me.
"...!"
It was a revelation so immense.
If I had majored in art, I would have slapped Picasso right there. If I believed in Buddhism, I would have placed a lotus cushion right next to Buddha.
"Ah-ryeon, wait a minute!"
"Yes?"
"I'm just asking, but how would you feel if all humans living on this earth, at least Koreans, came to hate you?"
"What...?"
"Of course, they wouldn't really hate you. Suppose, for example, you were OldManGoryeo or the Librarian of the Great Library. The entity you're portraying is the most loathed and despised being in the world."
"Guild leader, do you call my nickname OldManGoryeo in your mind?"
"That's not important now. Just answer my question! Quickly."
"Hmmm..."
Sim Ah-ryeon touched her chin with her index finger.
"If they specifically hate me, of course, I would dislike it as a person..."
"But?"
"If the entity I'm portraying monopolizes such immense hatred... I don't think I'd mind. But why?"
"Got it. Thanks for your answer. Now go ahead and enjoy being a villain."
"I'm not a villain!"
In the next cycle, the 217th cycle, I implemented my unprecedented idea.
Right after regressing, I recruited Seo Gyu, Sim Ah-ryeon, and the Saintess, as usual.
But just when the Ten Legs was about to rampage properly on the Korean Peninsula...
[The Saintess of National Salvation is in mourning, announcing the advent of darkness to humanity.]
Awakeners in Korea received a message they had never seen before.
[The Saintess of National Salvation recommends that awakeners check the Constellation's Playground immediately.]
The awakeners, puzzled by the message, logged into SG Net.
And.
As soon as they logged in, they saw a post pop up on the site.
Author: 'Collector of All Anomalies'
Greetings, human awakeners active in Korea.
I am a Constellation who has been paying attention to your activities.
Considering your significant achievements compared to other regions, I have decided that Korea needs a slightly more... 'challenging choice.' (Smile)
Starting today, an apostle called the 'Ten Legs' will appear in the Korean region.
The Ten Legs has numerous tentacles. If pierced by these tentacles, it is difficult to escape death.
Moreover, the tentacles regenerate in real-time, so even if you succeed in cutting one off, other tentacles will form.
Will you be able to withstand this trial?
This is truly an intriguing 'experiment,' I must say. (Smile)
I wish you the best of luck.
And shortly after, the Ten Legs did indeed appear, causing extensive damage.
"Kyaaaah!"
Sim Ah-ryeon, who logged into SG Net as 'Collector of All Anomalies,' cheered. Yes, it was a cheer, not a scream.
"Guild leader! Amazing! This is amazing! The power! The voices and curses of those who hate me... They're flooding in...!"
"Hmm."
"I feel like I can do anything now! Guild leader! I feel incredibly strong...!"
Indeed.
Why hide it?
The project to make all the main anomalies appearing on the Korean Peninsula seem as if they were caused by a specific Constellation.
Thus, the grudges and resentments directed towards these anomalies naturally accumulated towards the 'mastermind.'
Project Zero Requiem.
Footnotes:
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