WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I'm an Infinite Regressor, But I've Got Stories to Tell

Chapter 414

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The Reincarnator IV

The Teleportation ability user.

Go Yuri.

“…”

As I processed the business card that had been summarized into two lines in my head, a myriad of emotions washed over me.

Of course, it was clear that she had countless other abilities hidden beyond [Teleportation].

If an Awakening was the howling sound of wind rising from the □, the bottomless abyss, bored into a person’s memory—

Then the billions of holes drilled into Go Yuri’s heart would be a cluster of Awakenings in and of themselves.

But among them, [Teleportation] was an ability that I, that Old Man Scho, that we had longed for so desperately.

We searched and searched and ultimately couldn't find it, so wasn’t the Inunaki Tunnel what we secured, thinking we should at least prepare a passage for swift movement?

The very reason I had made the Inunaki Tunnel my base as a regressor.

It was partly for convenience, but it was also a show of my own resolve to never forget Old Man Schopenhauer’s ‘wish’.

“…This might sound like a complaint. But may I say something?”

“Oh, please do, Doc.”

Go Yuri smiled brightly.

“In the first place, just having a proper ‘conversation’ like this is a joy for me. Ohoho. I don’t know if you can read my expression but… Believe it or not, I am very happy right now, you see?”

“…Why didn’t you save Old Man Schopenhauer?”

Those words slipped out of my mouth.

“You could have saved him. Yes. Old Man Scho probably wouldn’t have been able to tell who you were, or even if you were human. But you could have silently moved Madam Adele and placed her beside the old man. Wasn't something like that simple for you?”

“…”

The smile on Go Yuri’s face slowly settled, calm like matcha powder.

“Why didn’t I save him when I could have? That is what you’re asking, I see.”

“Yes.”

“Hmm.”

After pondering for a moment as if she were in a bit of a bind, Go Yuri did something completely unexpected.

She suddenly began to take off her top.

“…?!”

I reacted faster than thunder, immediately turning my head away.

For the record, I felt no lust whatsoever.

As I have confessed to you all, I, the Undertaker, always sensually perceived the ‘state of the other person in the regression where they met their death’.

In other words, Go Yuri’s head, which I had cleanly sliced off in the 89th cycle, was also being broadcast 24/7 on the Undertaker’s special broadcast channel.

To add to that, it wasn't just the visuals that were reproduced. The audio was also implemented in ultra-high quality. This meant that Go Yuri’s head, severed by my blade, was cheerfully smiling and saying ‘Let’s become one’.

It would have been more surprising if I had felt any lust.

“Hey, what are you suddenly—”

“It’s okay.”

What? What is okay?

I’m not? Not okay at all?

“You can look now, Doc.”

“…”

The moment I opened my tightly shut eyes.

I was once again met with a completely unexpected sight and was at a loss for words for some time.

Normally, Go Yuri never exposed any bare skin.

Even when she was handing out food at the soup kitchen wearing a green apron that said ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, her entire body was meticulously covered in cloth.

Therefore, it would be fair to say that this was the first time in my eons-long life as a regressor that I had witnessed Go Yuri’s bare skin, but there was no bare skin to be seen.

Her back, with a pronounced spine.

Black markings, packed so densely that no skin was visible.

[Lee So-young/6/17/13:59]

A name.

[Kim Ha-neul/11/2/22:45]

[Mateusz Kowalski/5/20/23:56]

[Park Jin-woo/3/12/08:21]

Names.

Like epitaphs.

[Jeong Da-yeon/1/6/10:18]

[Han Yu-jin/12/14/15:27]

[李秀文/8/22/11:11]

[Shin Ye-rim/8/8/19:12]

[Kang Tae-hyun/5/20/23:56]

[आयशा ख़ान/7/19/14:44]

[Choi Min-seok/9/25/17:03]

[Люсия Ромеро/11/3/18:18]

[田中優希/12/27/06:40]

[Yoo Seo-yeon/7/3/06:35]

[ماركوبيانكي/2/28/12:00]

[Moon Chae-won/10/10/09:09]

[Nguyễn Thị Sophia/8/16/20:25]

[Jo Eun-bi/12/21/16:45]

[Омар Эль-Саид/6/5/00:02]

[Jang Eun-seo/7/27/20:40]

[נואהסמית/9/1/14:11]

[Noh Hyun-woo/5/13/05:25]

[Анастасия Волкова/10/31/03:03]

[Yoon Ha-rin/10/31/03:03]

Names and dates.

Words written in the smallest possible size that a person could discern with the naked eye.

On her back. On her arms. On her waist. Over her entire body.

“My memory isn’t as good as yours, Doc.”

Go Yuri said, her back still turned to me.

“I just wrote down as much as I could remember.”

“…The anniversary of their deaths.”

“Yes. It’s the time when my precious people die. Though it doesn’t mean much if the butterfly effect is too strong.”

Rustle, rustle.

Go Yuri pulled her clothes back on. I silently watched as the cemetery composed solely of letters was covered up.

“It’s a kind of ritual. They are all precious to me, but for the ones who are especially, especially precious, I try to recall that life again each time I write their name.”

“…”

“Then, sometimes when I’m looking in the mirror. Oh. Why did I write this person’s name?”

Go Yuri tilted her head.

“—and. There are times I can’t quite remember. It happens more often than you’d think.”

“…”

“When that happens, I stop writing that person’s name and the anniversary of their death from the next life onward. It’s like tossing a memo file into the trash can, poof.”

My lips would not part easily.

Regarding the method to escape from that cemetery of oblivion, even if no one else in the world knew, I, of all people, could speak of it with certainty.

I was also more aware of that method's side effects than anyone.

“Complete Memory.”

“Yes.”

“…But the Complete Memory ability requires one to bury their own senses in a tomb as the price for mourning others.”

“Yes.”

“The two of us reflect the end of the Route that each of us can reach.”

Go Yuri turned around and looked at me.

A smile still lingered on her face.

“Every ability is a blessing and a curse at the same time. But the human heart is a bit sly. It always envies what it doesn't have.”

“…”

“I also thought about it a lot. Hmm, for example. Miss Lee Ha-yul is a very precious person to you, isn’t she, Doc? But after hundreds of regressions, what if you could no longer remember Ha-yul-ssi.”

“…”

“I think you would be sad.”

That’s right.

“So, Doc. Please, I hope you won’t consider the ability you have a curse.”

In that moment, I realized.

“You chose not to obtain the Complete Memory ability on purpose, just so you could say those words to me now.”

“…”

A slightly surprised expression.

And then, a smile once more.

Her gentle gaze lingered on my face. It was the look of someone who understood that the other person had grasped her intention, and who, in turn, fully understood that they had understood.

After taking back the breath I had exhaled into the air, Go Yuri murmured quietly.

“Mr. Schopenhauer only awakens his regression ability upon losing his wife.”

“…”

“I tried various methods. At one point, I even tried to pioneer a Route by selecting Mr. Schopenhauer as the ‘protagonist’ instead of you, Doc. But he is, crucially, mentally weak.”

A regressor’s greatest weakness.

“He only awakens as a regressor upon losing his wife. But once he loses his wife, he can no longer become happy enough to continue living as a regressor.”

“…A dilemma with two choices.”

“Yeees. It would be so convenient if I could just find him a suitable new love. Really, Father is so devoted and romantic, it's quite troublesome.”

Go Yuri covered her mouth and laughed.

“On the other hand, you were the best, Doc.”

“…”

“Your ability—to be honest, it was nothing special. It was F-rank. Ah. Originally, you were a completely ordinary person with no abilities, Doc.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. But your mentality—hmmm, your mentality. It was so incredible, it made me wonder how a person’s will could be so strong. Of course. Your will was so sturdy that even as awakeners started to appear, you were always the one commanding the reconnaissance team of the Final Defense Line.”

“Hm.”

I couldn't relate to that.

Because it was a ‘past I could not remember’.

But Go Yuri, as she talked about me, seemed, how should I put it, a little more excited.

“I became your precious family member and died once, and surprisingly! This person. In the next life, he was still a non-ability user. My goodness. Does that even make sense?”

She seemed happy somehow.

I had no choice but to let her continue.

“I was a truly perfect younger sister, you know.”

“You were?”

“Yes. And you were the perfect older brother. The people in the reconnaissance team were so envious when they saw us siblings. Hmm, even now, when you’re with Miss Lee Ha-yul or Miss Sim Ah-ryeon, or Miss Oh Dok-seo, you exude a very warm atmosphere that makes others quite envious. But I don’t know. If they had seen the two of us siblings, they might have thought those other relationships were just lesser versions. That thought just crossed my mind.”

“Hey, no matter how you put it. Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?”

“If you realized just how much of a doting fool you can be, you would probably be extremely embarrassed yourself.”

“…”

I had my own suspicions about my doting tendencies, so I quietly shut my mouth.

“We were such close siblings. And you were in so much pain when you saw me get abducted by the void and die as if being tortured, my limbs torn off by a monster.”

“…”

“But when I went to find you in the next life, what do you know? This person. He hasn’t Awakened at all…!”

“Hmm.”

“D-don’t tell me, all that doting on his sister was a lie? An act? Oh my god. How dare he deceive the eyes of a reincarnator like me. This is unforgivable. This time, I will become someone far, far more precious than a sibling from a past life and make you Awaken…”

Finding something amusing, Go Yuri chuckled to herself.

“I think I got competitive. Probably.”

“…Sorry for being so indifferent.”

“What? No, no. I thought so too at first, but the truth was different.”

Go Yuri looked at me.

“Doc. Do you have any idea when or how you first Awakened?”

“No. Not at all.”

“It was when you heard my story.”

Story?

“You see. After trying to trigger your Awakening about 6 times and getting nowhere, I confessed everything in a fit of desperation. I came out as a reincarnator.”

“Ah.”

“So my plan was probably to just complain, saying things like, I've never met anyone like you, why on earth won't you Awaken, was your affection for me a lie, but…. As you listened quietly to my story. Well, you, Doc——”

I'm sorry.

I’m sorry for not remembering.

Sorry for not remembering you.

“You started to cry.”

“…”

“Ahaha. I was so flustered, you know? You just held onto me and kept apologizing, saying you were sorry, truly sorry. I was wondering why this brother of mine, this person, who had remained so resolute even when the defense line fell and the citizens all died, was suddenly acting this way…”

At that moment.

“It’s embarrassing, but tears fell from my eyes too.”

“…”

“Ah. The truth is, I wanted to hear an apology. I realized it then.”

Go Yuri reached out her hand.

Her palm caressed the regressor’s head.

“The human heart is such a sly thing, isn’t it? It’s only natural that you all don’t remember me. To want an apology for the oblivion of a past life, not even the present one, it’s all a mess.”

“…”

“It wasn’t [Complete Memory] from the start. It was just, your memory got a little better. It was already good to begin with. To be honest, it’s hard to call it a meaningful Awakened ability. Hmm, FFF-rank.”

However.

“I think I just wanted to be a little spoiled by you, Doc.”

There must have been many reasons.

In the name of finding an SSS-class ability user, she had treated her precious family members like gacha pulls. Furthermore, she distributed happiness and pain as if to lab rats to maximize the rank of their Awakening.

Atrocities that would have made the her from her first life faint in shock. Vile acts that would have her berating, ‘How can you still be human after doing that?’.

Before she came to completely hate herself, while the her from her first life still remained, even if just as a vestigial organ, right now.

“I thought, maybe it would be okay if it was you, Doc—”

She took a gamble.

“No more reincarnating. Well, in reality, I kept on reincarnating and reincarnating, but the game of using my reincarnation to awaken people is over.”

This is my last life.

“I decided to make this person, this man, my final destination.”

Fix the Route.

Suppress the butterfly effect.

Select the people to save and the people to abandon. Among them are numerous S-class ability users. Abandon them.

Set ‘the Undertaker’ at the very center of the Route.

Simultaneously calculate the movements of billions of people to create the ‘optimal Route’. I must create it. I can create it.

Change Uehara Shino’s location. Adjust her to appear at the Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon instead of the original Seongsan Ilchulbong tutorial dungeon.

Change Saintess Jeong Ye-ji’s location. In order to alter her walking path so she isn't swept away when the void appears in Seoul, a certain amount of groundwork is required, and carrying out this groundwork will cause the paths of three S-class awakeners to collide. Ignore it. Force it through.

“It was hard, but…”

The reincarnator realized. She had thought that time was the only resource she was given in infinite supply, but in reality, the resource she lacked the most was time itself.

“I was happy.”

Despite using her teleportation ability to somehow create an optimized path, the best possible Route, schedules that had to be ‘abandoned’ inevitably arose.

The farther one was from the Korean Peninsula, the more strongly this phenomenon occurred. It couldn't be helped. The Undertaker, located at the center of this Route, lacked the teleportation ability.

Abandon. Abandon. Abandon. Abandon.

As it neared completion, from a distance, it was a world where ‘most of the ability users were strangely concentrated on the Korean Peninsula’.

But the reality was the complete opposite.

It was a world where ‘most of the ability users outside the Korean Peninsula had been abandoned’.

For example, the location of Leviathan’s appearance changed with each different Route. She fixed its location to a middle school girl living in a certain village in Seoul, on the Korean Peninsula.

The best of worlds.

The worst of calculations.

A possible world where the best and the worst coexist, all for a single person.

“I’m sorry, but this was the best I could do.”

Go Yuri held out her hand.

“Doc. You may not remember, but the two of us, a very long time ago, a really long time ago, we made a promise.”

“…What kind of promise?”

“I asked you, Doc.”

Can you save me?

“And you answered, Doc.”

I will. No matter what.

“Now, I will ask you one last time.”

To renew an old promise.

“Will you save this world, and me?”

The regressor did not hesitate to take the reincarnator’s hand. Then, he covered their joined hands with his other one.

Humans had two hands.

They could overlap two resolves upon a single promise.

“I will.”

“…”

“No matter what.”

A smile slipped from the reincarnator’s lips.

“Let’s become one, Guild Leader.”

When he opened his eyes the next moment.

The regressor could finally remember everything that had happened in the 1st cycle.

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