I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell - Chapter 351

The Missing III

Originally, my memories were supposed to end right here. In the 173rd cycle, after the “Undertaker” shared a kiss with Dang Seo-rin, the story jumped into the next regression without delay. Yet for some reason…

“Still… Yes, that’s right.”

Before my eyes, Dang Seo-rin was casually living on into the time beyond the kiss.

She was smiling, tilting her head.

She was alive.

Like a sequel to a novel that had once been left unfinished.

“Well, I know I’m being a bit unreasonable. But, as the master of Utopia, the commander of the National Road Management Corps, and the supreme Great Witch, I might be able to grant one single wish, you know? By the way, that’s a really big deal, yeah? The moment you told me I was an Anomaly, it felt like some mental shackle snapped off in my head.”

Seo-rin puffed out her chest with a self-satisfied harrumph.

“Right now, I could probably grant any wish, like a genuine god,” she continued.

“…A wish, is it.”

Finally, the “Undertaker” opened his mouth.

It was certainly not my own will. My tongue was automatically, instinctively moving on its own. I felt like I was a customer in a movie theater, left only to watch the “Undertaker” speak these lines right in front of me.

‘No,’ I thought to myself. ‘Perhaps… while I still don’t know why, I might be witnessing the epilogue of the 173rd cycle. If so, it’s only natural I can’t intervene. In this moment, the one who kissed Dang Seo-rin is the Undertaker of the 173rd cycle. And the person conversing with her now is also my past self.’

My spirit quivered.

‘Am I finally going to learn what happened?’

What actually went down in the 173rd cycle?

Until now, I’d simply assumed that right after we kissed, Seo-rin had killed me. It was the simplest and most persuasive explanation.

And yet…

“…When I think about it, you’re right.”

The epilogue now playing out before my eyes showed me that my original assumption was wrong.

“It’s true that in the past, you’ve never fallen into Corruption exactly like this before. I doubt it’ll happen again.”

“Because you’d stop me?”

“Yes.”

Seo-rin had not killed me. Nor had we perished together. Amazingly, after we shared a kiss, the two of us were still talking to each other in a perfectly normal way.

Having apparently been abducted from the 999th cycle back into this past scene, I held my breath, secretly eavesdropping on the epilogue.

“In the end, you’d have to say this cycle failed. And yet, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a rare opportunity,” the Undertaker said, stroking his chin. “Just let me confirm one thing. Seo-rin, that golden set of scales of yours… that Equivalent Exchange scale can extract greater rewards the more you sacrifice. Am I correct?”

Seo-rin nodded. “Yeah. When we kissed earlier, I tried it for the first time. Right now, I can probably put ‘pretty much anything’ on the scales. My own lifespan. Your memories. Anything at all, as long as it matches the price.”

Indeed. When you consider it carefully, it’s a horrifying power, isn’t it?

‘My Complete Memory ability is practically absolute. Excluding the handful fo blank slates from the 1st to the 4th cycle—the ones Cheon Yo-hwa mentioned—I remember basically everything else.’

And yet, Dang Seo-rin had just placed even that flawless ability onto her golden scales. She erased all my memories related to that kiss so that the kiss we just shared could be “my first kiss.”

‘Right, that explains why Infinite Void— Why Cheon Yo-hwa once demanded something so absurd, claiming we’d shared a kiss way back when!’

Realization struck heavy, true, yet totally unexpected.

Still, if here in the 173rd cycle, Seo-rin had wiped out all my memories of my first kiss, it did fit. She had deleted a chunk of memories that Cheon Yo-hwa once possessed. Later on, once Cheon Yo-hwa absorbed all the powers of the Void and the Hidden Mastermind, she reclaimed the memories that had been snatched away.

‘Unbelievable, so it was actually…? No, wait, that’s the 1st cycle, so… This is getting way too complicated. And besides, the kiss isn’t even the main point here!’

There was really only one vital point: Right here in the 173rd cycle, the Corrupted Dang Seo-rin before me had risen to a nearly omnipotent state capable of tampering with the Regressor’s Complete Memory. According to her, she could place absolutely anything on her golden scales, and in exchange, she could gain any corresponding wish.

If that was the case, then what would the Undertaker of the 173rd cycle—my past self—do when faced with such a one-of-a-kind chance?

‘Maybe he borrows Dang Seo-rin’s power to hunt down an Outer God? No, that would be pointless. Even if we defeated an Outer God with the Fallen Dang Seo-rin’s help, there’s no guarantee we could replicate it in a later cycle.’

My thoughts were running a mental race against each other.

‘Besides, the fact that it’s specifically the 173rd cycle is way too conspicuous. We don’t have enough intel! At this point in time, we’ve barely even taken down the Outer God called Infinite Void. We haven’t found any way to tackle the Infinite Metagame, and as for the Mastermind or Leviathan, I might not even know they exist!’

I felt my throat going dry. Or maybe I really was parched.

The faster I thought about the perfect way to utilize this priceless opportunity, the closer I felt to the 173rd-cycle me.

‘Any wish I might make now could end up wasted by hindsight. I lack crucial knowledge, experience. I still need to figure out how to conquer this world, this Void! For instance, what if I used this chance to wish for enough power to defeat the Admin of the Infinite Metagame? That’d be a catastrophic mistake!’

I understood.

Logically speaking, I knew.

In the 173rd cycle, the Admin of the Infinite Metagame seemed like an unbeatable entity. A towering mountain. We had no practical way to conquer it. It wasn’t until the 593rd cycle that we managed to subdue the Infinite Metagame, and even then it took Dok-seo’s cooperation.

‘Meanwhile, my 173rd-cycle self has no clue how crucial Oh Dok-seo is…’

I wanted to warn him, to tell my past self that the 173rd cycle is still early in the entire regressor’s journey.

There’s no need to worry about the Infinite Metagame right now. You should consult Dang Seo-rin about an even worse giant evil that’s coming!

In that instant—

‘Ah.’

My heart—

Thump!

I felt a sort of resonance, past with present, now with the future, two layers of melody that should never overlap somehow crossing through the miraculous magic of my heartbeat.

The “Undertaker” spoke.

“…Dang Seo-rin.”

“Hm?”

“I’ve made up my mind.”

“Oh, really? What’s your wish? Now I’m curious too.”

“I doubt I can just figure out an optimal wish right now. So—”

Thump.

Thɪʂ 𝙘hа̄p𝓉𝘦r 𝙞ṡ pο𝖘𝗍ℯ𝑑 b𝙮 𝘬𝘪ƚҽ𝓃ο𝕧𝗲𝐥

“I’ll ask my future self.”

Thump.

“Huh? Your future self?”

“Right.”

Thump. Thump.

“Let’s say the me from the 10th cycle asked you how to defeat the Ten Legs. Wouldn’t that be pitiful?”

“Pfft. Hahaha, true! Makes sense!”

“Maybe we’re in the same boat right now. So the wish I want to place upon your golden scales of Equivalent Exchange is—”

Thump!

And—

“Summon the future me to this very place.”

My heart pounded.

“Ohhh, your future self, huh? That even piques my interest.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Sounds fun. Dunno if it’ll work. Besides, how far in the future are we talking? Right now we’re in… Sorry, which cycle was this?”

“The 173rd cycle.”

“Got it, 173. Let’s see. So if we say… the 300th cycle? The 400th? You want me to bring your future self from around then?”

“No.” The Undertaker shook his head as a hint of amusement crept into his voice. “If we’re going to make a wish, let’s go all in. Summon the me of the 1,000th cycle.”

“What the heck? 1,000th? If you haven’t saved the world by then, doesn’t that mean something’s seriously wrong with you?”

“That’s exactly why I’m trying this,” the Undertaker said with a chuckle. “Think about it. If I put a wish on the scales to bring the me of the 1,000th cycle—and nothing happens—that means I must have already saved the world by then, right?”

“Oh?”

“On the other hand, if it actually succeeds in summoning me from the 1,000th cycle… well, we’ll find out plenty of things. Either way, there’s no downside.”

“Wow, that’s our Utopia’s Guardian for you, when it comes to this, your brain’s in top gear.”

“All thanks to having such a wise Great Witch as the leader of the National Road Management Corps.”

“Oh hush, flattery will get you nowhere.”

Seo-rin smiled.

“Cool, got it,” I affirmed. “Then I, Dang Seo-rin, the Great Witch of the Samcheon World, also known by some as the Corrupted ‘Great Anomaly,’ command you now.”

“Are you sulking?”

“Onto the right side of the scales, I place the 1,000th-cycle Undertaker, bringing him into this place.”

Fwoooosh!

The golden scales projected into the night sky began tilting violently to the right, as though the chain might snap.

“Huh?”

“Uh— Um. For now…”

“…Looks like it went up.”

“Y-yeah.”

The Undertaker and Dang Seo-rin spoke at once, both sounding flustered. “Maybe?”

“But this is… wow. Way too heavy,” the Great Witch continued. “The heaviest I’ve ever felt on these scales was Yu Ji-won’s feelings, but…”

“And?”

“…Compared to that, this is ten times heavier. No, even heavier than that. I mean, I’m wondering if there’s any price in the entire world that can match this weight.”

Silence.

After about twenty seconds…

THUD!

Seo-rin slammed the table with her fist and stood up.

“Hey, Undertaker! Isn’t this just ridiculous?! How can you fail to save the world even after 1,000 cycles?!”

“Look, don’t shout at me about that.”

“Who else can I shout at?!”

“This is… it’s the Anomalies’ fault, Seo-rin. There’s no way I could be that incompetent!”

“Seriously! It was all so romantic until we kissed!”

“You started it!”

“Huh? Are you for real? You were basically begging me for a kiss—like, ‘Even if the world burns. Even if you turn into an Anomaly. I’ll always be by your side forever!’ Everyone could see you were craving a kiss!”

“I never dealt with you out of that kind of selfish desire! Not once!”

“That’s even worse, you idiot!”

Hmm.

I wished I could plug my ears, but “I” wasn’t free to do so.

It was depressing.

The two of them bickered for quite a while. At length, after this petty fight that dragged both human and Anomaly down to a cringe level, they finally pressed their foreheads together in all seriousness.

“My remaining lifespan… Yep,not enough. Ugh, maybe we’re not offering the right sort of price…”

“What if we add my lifespan?”

“Still nowhere near enough. And it feels like the ‘type’ is mismatched. I tried throwing in the entire lifespans of Busan’s citizens just as a test, and the scale didn’t even budge.”

“Wow.”

“Feels like it’s too much of a cheat code or something. So what do we do?”

They tried various experiments, but that golden scale, which had tilted violently to one side, didn’t so much as twitch.

Then—

The Undertaker parted his lips.

“Dang Seo-rin, I need to confess something.”

“A confession? About what?”

“To be honest, even if you had killed me a moment ago, I would have accepted it without any regrets.”

She looked at me. Facing her gaze, dark as the night sky, the Undertaker continued.

“If our life ended there, I would have been able to accept it… Mind if I ask if you feel the same?”

“Yeah.”

Her answer came immediately.

“I do… I feel just like you do.”

“Then—” The Undertaker inhaled. “I’ll offer up my memories as the price.”

Ah.

“Your memories?”

“Yes. The biggest problem with summoning my future self is that I’d acquire far too much knowledge in the present. But even if I do acquire knowledge, if I wipe out my memory of having acquired it—”

“Ah.”

“Then maybe it won’t be seen as such a cheat code. We’ll just forget we ever summoned the me of the 1,000th cycle.”

“Wait, so…” Seo-rin trailed off, scrunching her brow. “Let’s see if I’ve got this right: We bring in your future self and ask him a bunch of questions. But then we treat it like none of that ever happened, erasing the fact we asked him in the first place?”

The Undertaker nodded. “Exactly. To me, the 173rd cycle ends here. Actually, it ended the moment we kissed… I’ll erase all memory that we had this conversation. And anything that happens after we summon the me of the 1,000th cycle, any actions or discussion, all of it goes away from my memory.”

“Even if you do… what good does it do for you? Without memories, it’s basically the same as death. No different from dying. Even if you go to the trouble of summoning your future self, it’s pointless.”

“Pointless for me, sure.”

His quiet murmur.

“But it might matter to the Undertaker of the 1,000th cycle… And to the Dang Seo-rin of the 1,000th cycle. And to all of us, and all of humanity.”

Gently, the Undertaker reached out and clasped Seo-rin’s hand.

“Dang Seo-rin, watch over my death.”

There was a brief silence. Then a sorrowful smile.

“Gladly.”

Seo-rin’s palm blanketed over the back of my hand, her whisper drifting over our interlaced fingers.

“I, Dang Seo-rin, hereby declare. On the left side of the scales, I place the body, mind, and consciousness of the Undertaker now before me.”

With each word—body, mind, consciousness—the scale shifted slightly. Even then, the scales had yet to balance.

“And also, every single event that will happen from now on, in this so-called 173rd cycle… Undertaker forfeits his right to remember them.”

The left scale rose a little higher. But balance had still not been achieved.

The master of Utopia whispered.

“And even his time spent together with me… He forgets it all.”

At that, the two sides of that golden scale, which seemed like they’d never even out, finally reached equilibrium.

Equivalent Exchange. A power that only a Fallen Dang Seo-rin at the pinnacle could wield.

Beneath the night sky, the witch’s scales shone golden like a constellation.

The weight was balanced.