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

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

The Mastermind XII

I was dreaming.

Surprisingly, the world in the dream was still intact.

There were no Anomalies, no Voids. South of the Han River in Seoul was not blanketed in white ash. The sky and the moon remained endlessly peaceful. I could walk through the night to a 24-hour convenience store, or head to work alone without hesitation. The sighs of yawning workers at dawn carried a quiet assurance: “The world will still be the same tomorrow.” At noon, the stiff arms of a laborer tossing a garbage bag into the back of a truck reflected hardened muscle.

My job was a bit unusual.

“Teacher, I’ve finished all the problems!”

In the dream, I was Cheon Yo-hwa’s private tutor.

I wasn’t merely a tutor focused on academic subjects, but a study manager fully assisting my client, Yo-hwa, in every aspect of her learning. I’d even moved from where I usually lived in Seoul, taking temporary leave from school, and was staying in Sejong City.

Some might think it absurd to go to such lengths for a single student. However, when I looked at the amount deposited into my account every month, both the dream-version of myself and the “me” watching the dream could accept it without question.

“Sunbae, is my sister’s lesson over?”

The Cheon Yo-hwa I was tutoring wasn’t just one person.

The younger twin sister: Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (千謠話).

The elder twin sister: Cheon Yo-hwa of heaven’s desolation (天寥化).

“If the lesson’s over, let’s go hang out.”

“No, it’s your turn for class now...”

“Heroes don’t study. In this modern capitalist society, my status is practically that of a hero.”

If the younger sister had a personality that spread Vitamin D-like sunshine wherever she went, the elder sister, though composed in appearance, had an unpredictable nature that made her a constant source of anxiety.

“Why do you call me ‘sunbae’ instead of ‘Teacher,’ anyway?”

“It’s simple. I’m going to enroll in your university someday, so I might as well get used to calling you sunbae in advance.”

“With your attitude, getting into our school is impossible.”

“I scored 0, 100, 0, and 100 in Korean history and the other core subjects on my last mock exam.”

“......”

“And for the exams where I got zeros, I still picked the correct answers for every question.”

It was sheer madness.

At the time, my life was mortgaged to these mirror-image twins. As the elder sister had pointed out, in a capitalist society, the person who controls your bank account effectively controls your life.

I was dreaming.

“Did you know, sunbae? Our family is actually a cult.”

One evening, beneath a night sky brightly adorned with the Milky Way, Cheon Yo-hwa murmured this to me.

“My sister and I were destined to be possessed by gods from birth. My sister serves the god Infinite Void. I serve the god Mastermind.”

“Those are some peculiar names for gods...”

“Infinite Void signifies the absence of time. Mastermind is a god that denies and degrades the fabric of space. Our cult’s goal is to reduce all of existence—both time and space—back to nothingness.”

Perhaps because we had grown close as tutor and student, she sometimes confided secrets in me that she couldn’t share with others. It seemed she had correctly judged my discretion and trusted me not to repeat her words.

“Have you ever wondered why my sister and I share the same name? It’s not an ordinary cult. Then again, I suppose no cult is truly ordinary.”

“Do you want to escape from it?”

“I can’t.”

“......”

“My sister gets to live a relatively free life, blending in with the general public. Even the adults approve. After all, when we inherit the position of head of the family and leader of the cult, someone will need to handle external affairs. You know, like how a temple has both an abbot and a chief monk?”

“So your sister is the abbot, and you’re the chief monk?”

“Our cult isn’t limited to Sejong City, its influence stretches across the entire Korean Peninsula. This little ‘student play’ of mine won’t last long. Someday, I’ll rise to a status you can’t even imagine.”

“Ah, yes, I’ll be sure to serve you well, Chief Monk.”

“Hahaha.” Cheon Yo-hwa hugged her knees and leaned sideways to look at me. “If my sister and I ever change... If we turn strange...”

“...?”

“Promise you’ll come to help us, sunbae.”

I was dreaming.

The peaceful world crumbled in an instant.

While traveling to Busan on the KTX train, I was suddenly summoned to a tutorial dungeon.

Though I worried about the safety of those I left behind—particularly the twins—I quickly lost the luxury of such concerns. My own survival was hanging by a thread.

Fortunately, I soon discovered that mortal peril was rarely urgent for me.

I, the Undertaker, was a regressor.

The 1st cycle. The 2nd cycle. The 3rd.

Barely escaping the hellhole known as Busan Station, I was left so gravely injured that death seemed inevitable. Yet I made my way to Sejong City, dragging my battered body.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Despite the endless cycles, my concern for my cherished students never waned.

“Hmm? Who are you?”

But by then, the twins had already become “strange.”

The younger sister didn’t recognize me. Though her face and demeanor were identical, I instinctively knew the person before me was no longer my student.

It was later revealed that the younger sister had been unable to cope with the tragedy at Baekhwa Girls’ High School and had placed herself under a form of self-induced NPC-brainwashing.

“Yo-hwa, where is your sister...?”

“Oh! You must be one of my sister’s acquaintances!”

The younger sister, Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (千謠話), smiled brightly and led me to the basement of Baekhwa Girls’ High School. The students she had brainwashed stared at me with blank expressions as I followed her.

“Here we are!”

“......”

“Unnie! You have a visitor!”

There was no response.

Her elder sister had become an entirely hollow shell.

No matter how much anyone called to her, poked her arm to tease her, or tried to make her react, the girl kneeling in the center of the basement remained utterly unresponsive.

She was like a vegetative patient.

“Haha, seriously, unnie. People get scared when you keep saying weird things like that. We have a guest today, so maybe try behaving for once?”

The younger sister chattered endlessly, as though she were carrying on a cheerful conversation with her sister.

Her perception of reality had already warped. To her, Baekhwa Girls’ High School was still intact, civilization hadn’t collapsed, and the dependable yet playful elder sister was still alive in her world.

“......”

I was too late.

In this cycle, I had failed to save them.

Once more.

I was dreaming.

As the cycles repeated, I grew stronger. I met a companion named Emit Schopenhauer.

Old Man Scho and I shared much in common. Not only were we both regressors, but we also each had someone we needed to save from the Void as quickly as possible.

“Still, you’re better off than me, you damn quack!”

Old Man Scho called me by all sorts of nicknames. From Undertaker to Doc, from Doc to Quack, and since undertakers embalm corpses, from Embalmer to “you damn pest.”

Considering Old Man Scho was German, his creative talent for nicknaming bordered on acrobatics. Then again, Germans would probably never guess that Adolf Hitler’s nickname in a certain East Asian country was “Single Nut.”[1]

Perhaps humanity shares a universal love of childish humor.

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“I only have one minute after regression to save my wife! It’s fucking impossible! But your students? Hah! You’ve got ten days, or is it a hundred? That’s plenty of time!”

“They’re enthralled by incomprehensibly powerful Anomalies... I don’t even know if I can save them.”

“At least it’s not physically impossible. Damn, kid, you’ve got it easy.”

Ironically, Old Man Scho was the first to break. Overcome by despair at his inability to save his wife, he eventually withdrew from the regression cycles. I lost one of my most dependable allies.

I had no time to wallow in despair.

Old Man Scho was right. Saving the Cheon Yo-hwa twins wasn’t physically impossible.

I was dreaming.

Countless events passed through the haze of my dream.

I hunted the Ten Legs. I hunted the Meteor Shower. I met Dang Seo-rin, Yu Ji-won, Lee Ha-yul, the Saintess, Sim Ah-ryeon, and Noh Do-hwa.

I established a base in Busan. I founded the National Road Management Corps. Slowly, ever so slowly, I expanded human territory across the Void-stained lands.

Humanity’s feeble reconquista.

Resistance fighters still lived across the Korean Peninsula—and the world—battling the Void in scattered pockets. These resistance groups, called guilds, were gradually united by the National Road Management Corps, connecting them into a cohesive front.

With each regression, human dominion extended further northward. The front line of the Korean Peninsula’s reclamation campaign eventually reached Sejong City.

“Sunbae...”

On the 100th day of the Great Void’s arrival, I headed for Baekhwa Girls’ High School once more.

This time, I was as prepared as I could be. I couldn’t face the school alone, not yet—not in my fragile state during those early cycles.

Thankfully, the elder sister was still herself. Together with the last surviving students of Baekhwa Girls’ High School, she had managed to hold on.

When she saw me, her eyes welled with tears. For the first time, the student who had always seemed so mature for her age let her vulnerability show.

“Sunbae, Yo-hwa... My sister...”

“It’s all right,” I said, patting her on the shoulder. “I’m sorry I was late. Don’t worry. Even if it’s not today, even if it takes time, I’ll bring your sister back.”

“......”

“Let’s go.”

“Okay...”

The wheel of cycles turned again.

I was dreaming.

The elder sister, Cheon Yo-hwa, wasn’t physically strong, but she had a brilliant mind. Even when encountering Anomalies for the first time, she quickly deduced their weak points and devised strategies for us.

In the Regressor Alliance, Noh Do-hwa handled logistics and operations from the rear, like a chancellor in the Three Kingdoms. In contrast, Cheon Yo-hwa accompanied me directly to battlefields, offering timely advice like a strategist—more akin to Guo Jia.[2]

“You never used to talk about The Three Kingdoms so much. What happened?”

“Classics are classics for a reason.”

“You’re acting weird. I look away for one second, and suddenly you’ve turned into an old man...”

“Quiet.”

Cheon Yo-hwa provided invaluable intel on the Anomalies haunting Baekhwa Girls’ High School and strategies to counter them.

The Hundred Ghosts’ Night Parade.

Ghosts that crawled upside-down, bouncing as they moved. The Red-and-Blue Toilet Paper Ghosts that cursed users in bathrooms. Voices of ghosts emanating from speakers or radios.

White flowers lurking on the fourth basement floor...

“This cycle won’t be enough.”

After sharing all the information she had, Cheon Yo-hwa smiled faintly.

“Save my sister. Save Yo-hwa. Save us, sunbae.”

I did.

Finally, on the 117th cycle, I recruited the Tutorial Fairy and forged a shortcut straight into Baekhwa Girls’ High School. With the help of Cheon Yo-hwa of heaven’s desolation (天寥化), I secured the identity of the Baekhwa Girls’ High School Guard, allowing me to infiltrate early and swiftly.

Never before had I breached the Great Void this early in a cycle.

Yet even in this uncharted attempt, I skillfully subdued the ghosts of the Hundred Ghosts’ Night Parade. It was as though I had already memorized their weaknesses and behavior patterns.

And of course I had. Cheon Yo-hwa had told me everything about them in prior cycles.

“Sunbae!”

“T-Teacher?! How... How did you...?”

The twin sisters, not yet consumed by the Void, were shocked to see me.

In this isolated space, cut off entirely from the outside world, where only students had survived under extreme conditions, my arrival provided them with a brief respite.

Together, we hunted the Hyakki Yagyo.

Together, we descended to the fourth basement floor.

Together, we carried out the ritual to summon Baekhwa, finally coming face-to-face with an Outer God.

“It’s hopeless... The Outer God possessing my sister is far too powerful. Of course, it’s only natural—we were both created from birth as vessels to serve such entities.”

“Isn’t there any way?”

“There is,” the elder sister answered grimly, her eyes clouded with determination. “We have to rewrite her memory and identity.”

“Rewrite? How would you even do that?”

“By reducing her memories and identity—everything that has defined her since birth—into ‘false memories.’ Then, she must awaken to a new self, one forged by her own will.”

“That’s easy to say, but how could something like that even be possible...?”

“It’s possible. With my sister’s ability.”

NPC Creation. An ultimate brainwashing technique that forces the target to think and act exactly as programmed.

“She needs to start over. A new life.”

“......”

“Of course, if we change too much, my sister’s entire identity could collapse. That’s why we’ll focus on removing only the parts tied to the Outer God.”

“Do you think that kind of precision is even feasible?”

“It might be hard. Human memories are fragile, after all. There’s a chance she might also lose her memories of me, her twin sister... and even you, sunbae.” Cheon Yo-hwa paused, then conviction steeled her voice as she declared, “But if we can exorcise the Outer God from Yo-hwa’s soul, it’ll be worth the cost.”

“I don’t understand. Even memories of you might vanish. How can you be so confident in this plan when it means losing the time you’ve spent together with your sister?”

“You’re here, aren’t you, sunbae?”

I was momentarily at a loss for words. “What?”

“We’ve only known each other for a year or two, as tutor and student. Yet here you are, crossing a hundred cycles just to save us. Even if my sister forgets me, it’s okay. She’ll have far more time to build memories with you in the future.”

“......”

“And I’ll feel the same. Right now, the priority is defeating Infinite Void. But someday, when the time comes to conquer the Mastermind... At that moment...” Cheon Yo-hwa’s confident tone wavered and her words trailed off, her parted lips closing. She grew quiet.

Then, her red eyes fixed on me, her gaze unreadable.

“Why are you staring like that?”

“......”

“Is there a problem with the strategy?”

“No, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Her murmur was soft, almost inaudible. Her eyes remained fixed on me.

Somehow, I didn’t feel awkward under her gaze.

People often spoke of intense eye contact. A powerful gaze could make anyone flinch. But Cheon Yo-hwa’s eyes weren’t sharp—they were shaded, more like “eye shadows” than blinding light.

Just as a person might seek the relief of shade on a scorching summer day, her gaze brought only comfort. Almost as if she had spent her entire life preparing to be someone’s shade.

Her god, the Mastermind, was known as the “Black Veil.” Perhaps she had begun to resemble the god she served.

“Sunbae, I have one question.”

“Ask me anything.”

“You won’t give up, will you?”

There was no need to ask, “Give up on what?”

Sometimes, even when a sentence lacked its context, people could still understand each other. Gaps in speech could be filled by the shared experiences of two lives.

I could answer easily.

“I won’t give up.”

“There may be other Anomalies even stronger and more cunning than the ones we’ve faced. There may be enemies so insurmountable that no amount of struggle will overcome them.”

“......”

“Moreover, we don’t even know if it’s possible to bring those erased by Time Seal back to reality. Yet despite all that, you’ll never abandon the world, will you? You won’t let go, like the regressor who gave up before you?”

“Never,” I said, taking Cheon Yo-hwa’s hand. “No matter what happens, I won’t give up. And if the day ever comes when I do give up, it’ll only be because there’s a reason so compelling that even I can’t deny it.”

“A... A reason?”

“Yes. A reason everyone can accept. One that even I—whether it’s the me of the 1st cycle, the 100th, or any cycle—can agree with.”

“......”

“Unless such a reason exists, I will never give up.”

Cheon Yo-hwa fell silent. Then her lips parted, revealing the darkness within that spoke one word:

“Okay.”

A faint smile spread across those lips.

Even shadows, I realized, could carry thin cracks of light.

“I feel the same way, sunbae.”

On the 117th cycle, we defeated Infinite Void. One sister lost a part of her memory, including fragments of her elder sister and me.

I was dreaming.

“Sunbae.”

Yet no one despaired.

Cheon Yo-hwa’s words had been true. There were far more days ahead for us to spend together.

For humanity, this might have been a tragedy. But for the twin sisters, it was a small happiness.

Through hundreds of cycles, we occasionally spent time together. We drank coffee, marveled at the submerged Inunaki Tunnel, and grew close enough for Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (千謠話) to call her sister unnie once again.

Together, we defeated the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. We were shocked by Yu Ji-won’s inhumanity. And finally, by the 685th cycle, we had grown strong enough to confront the Mastermind.

We asked the elder Cheon Yo-hwa to conduct the ritual to summon the Outer God.

And so, time passed.

Time passed.

“Sunbae.”

I was dreaming.

“Sunbae?”

I was dreaming.

“Sunbae.”

And then.

“Yes. Thank you.”

A shadow whispered.

“I think I’m finally happy now.”

I awoke from the dream.

Footnotes:

[1] There is a fringe theory with a cult following that Adolf Hilter had monorchism, the condition of only having one testicle for one reason or another.

[2] Guo Jia is a character from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He is characterized by his skill in administrative work and as an excellent judge of character.