The Regressor Can Make Them All - Chapter 540

Chapter 540

Rustle-

A faint noise brushed past Se-Hoon’s ear, stirring his consciousness from slumber. Slowly, he opened his eyes and took in his surroundings.

This place is…

The sky was drowned in darkness; the land was dry and twisted. Like the world had long lost the will to live, everything—aside from himself—was dead. And that was a dead giveaway that he was in the accursed landscape of a Demon Realm.

Frowning, Se-Hoon tried to recall how he’d ended up in such a place.

I remember I was somewhere in southern India…

He’d fought the Destroyer of Seas in the Indian Ocean, lost track of the bastard, then set up camp in a region that was at least slightly less polluted. That was the last thing he remembered.

With a furrowed brow, Se-Hoon moved to push himself up… only for his right hand to pass right through the ground.

Thunk!

“Agh…”

His body flopped over helplessly, still sluggish from sleep. Even he thought he was pathetic, making him roll his eyes and look toward his right arm.

Flap-

All he saw was a limp, empty sleeve fluttering in the wind.

Ah, right. That bastard tore it off, didn’t he?

Somehow he had managed to forget the injury he’d suffered literally just a few hours ago. He must’ve been deeply unconscious.

Shaking his head, Se-Hoon adjusted and used his still-attached left arm to push himself upright—the waves of injuries he’d overlooked came crashing back. A fractured heart. Rotting lungs. A stomach melted by fire. Bones and muscles shattered so thoroughly that counting the pieces was meaningless.

Crack- Pop!

The mere act of standing drew screams from every cell in his body.

“Hahhhhh.”

Pathetic…

Ten seconds… no, not even five. And he had already been torn apart like that by the time he had run into the Harbinger—in other words, barely holding on. Still, he couldn’t believe he’d let the Destroyer of Seas slip through his fingers. All that for a ridiculous, shameful end.

Well, logically, someone like me, who’s meant for rear support, shouldn’t have been on the front lines in the first place…

Then again, what use was logic in a world on the brink of ruin? He shook off the pointless complaint and turned his gaze to scan the area.

Woong-

At the center of the camp stood the Great Holy Sword, planted in the earth. From its blade, a soft golden stream of divine mana flowed to form a dome-shaped temporary Sanctuary.

Within its range, the demonic aura that would have made mere lingering cause injuries to worsen and death to creep ever closer was neutralized. On top of that, it even hastened his recovery.

Without that thing, I’d be dead already.

Leaning on the Sanctuary’s healing, he forced his broken body to move. As he limped across, his eyes fell on the various scattered traces across the campsite.

Chopped firewood, twisted grotesque monster meat, a few opened jars of seasoning… whoever had been cooking clearly left everything behind in a hurry. Most likely, they had fled because something powerful had shown up nearby.

Yeah… there’s definitely no help coming.

Now there was definitely no point in staggering outside. He’d only collapse again—or die outright. His steps continued, heading to where his companion had been. Once there, he sat down to resume the task they’d abandoned: kindling the fire and preparing the meat.

Fwoosh-

A holy blue flame, a Genesis Flame, flickered to life on the wood. Immediately, the monster meat on the grill above began to purify and roast within its glow. All of his movements were made with practiced ease. But midway through the process, he got distracted and his eyes drifted—again—to the edges of the campsite.

Why does this place look so familiar…?

It was clearly his first time here, yet a strange sense of déjà vu clung to his skin. And after everything he had experienced, he knew that was not something to be ignored. With a frown, he began methodically scanning his surroundings to jog his memory.

“…Ah.”

His eyes landed on the far edge of camp, specifically on a stone slab there. Its surface was pitch-black, corrupted by miasma, but part of the coating had flaked off to reveal the pale white layer beneath.

So this was where a Tower of Heroes once stood…

The trace was faint—so much so that it must’ve been destroyed early in the war and completely corroded by the Harbingers of Destruction. In other words, there was probably nothing left worth salvaging.

Turning away, Se-Hoon stared blankly into the flickering fire.

Why did the Towers do nothing?

Unlike the Abyss of Demons, which fed off the power of the Harbingers of Destruction to hasten the world’s destruction, the Towers of Heroes had done absolutely nothing. They never lowered the difficulty of trials. Never saved those who died or were trapped during the climb. And never offered the successful ascenders additional strength.

Both the Abyss and the Towers had appeared on the same day—with polar opposite behavior.

If the Towers had just offered a little help to humanity…. If the world had moved for our sake, just a little—

“Ha.”

His hollow laugh snapped the thought apart. Scratching his head, Se-Hoon looked up at the pitch-black sky.

Did I hit my head…? What am I even fantasizing about?

What meaning was there in regretting a past that never even happened? Shaking his head at his own delusion, he refocused on cooking.

“Are you seriously blaming me for letting that bastard go? You fuckers want to die that bad?”

“It was your job to block his escape. Stop making pathetic excuses. You look disgusting.”

“I actually agree this time. More importantly—what if he’d died? What the hell would we have done?”

“Maybe if you assholes had done your job and kept him from running in the first place!”

All of a sudden, a noisy argument erupted behind him. The voices—all far too familiar—dispelled his wandering thoughts in an instant.

And without him even realizing it, Se-Hoon’s lips had curled slightly upward.

Idiots.

It was disgusting to think they were still blaming each other even in a time like now. And yet, that very ugliness gave him hope. Because it meant that they could still fight.

The contradiction made him wince, then he turned around to look at them.

“Ah.”

No one was there. Only an empty wasteland stretched out endlessly.

Seeing that, Se-Hoon realized he was in a dream.

***

Se-Hoon’s eyes opened naturally.

“…”

Lying still on his bed, Se-Hoon stared up at the ceiling. Everything was familiar. Every texture, every detail.

Realizing he really was back in the real world, he thoroughly examined himself. Whether it was the past or now, on nights when he dreamed of the past, the memories were also so vivid that he found them hard to ignore.

“…Phew.”

Once the self-check was done, Se-Hoon finally relaxed and sat up.

“What a mess.”

Feeling his sweat-drenched body, he knew anyone looking at him would think he’d had a nightmare. His entire body was soaked, clothes clinging to his skin. So, the first thing he did was head to the bathroom for a quick shower.

“Let’s see…”

Done with his shower, Se-Hoon headed over to the fridge that was filled to the brim with Eun-Ha’s side dishes. He pulled out a few, heated some rice and soup, and checked the news on his phone while waiting.

“A Week Since the Day of Repentance. Where is the Pilgrimage Church headed without its center?”

“The Growing Void of Divine Power—The Association vows immediate countermeasures”

“The Golden Ring in the Sky: Humanity’s New Blessing or New Curse?”

Two weeks had passed since the Prayer Operation, yet the world was still in chaos over what had happened on the so-called Day of Repentance.

The rampage and death of the Pilgrim. The sudden appearance of the Golden Ring. And a simultaneous System Alert received by all of humanity. On that day, another Perfect One had died, and there were even two ‌unprecedented phenomena added on top. The world simply had no room to forget.

“I really need to clean the mess up…”

Letting out a sigh, Se-Hoon turned toward the window to look at the Golden Ring winding like a celestial river across the sky, high above. Its horizon-spanning presence made his eyes narrow.

That thing… is a real pain.

With Karl’s death, a contradiction arose in the law he had established. However, the Golden Ring hadn’t erased it and instead revised it into a new one: Repentance. The change was completely unexpected—but honestly not too shocking considering there had been precedents with the Blessings. After that though…

No one knows what it actually does.

Despite the Law of Repentance making a grand appearance in front of the world, popping up as a system message to all, nowhere—nowhere in the world at least—had the effects been observed. Unlike when the new Blessings emerged and their effects were recorded within days, there was just… nothing.

To make things worse, perhaps due to the revision of divine mana, divine mana was weakening.

Thankfully, the Pilgrim’s Path is still intact… which only makes this weirder.

If the Law of Repentance were truly active and draining divine mana, why wasn’t humanity’s holy protection against the Abyss of Demons affected?

Investigating the strangeness, Se-Hoon had checked various channels over the past week—to end up with some underwhelming results.

So far, he’d confirmed that the Divine Mana Conversion Device known as the Sanctified Branch was still functioning normally, along with his Divine Power and Luize’s Divine Speech.

Despite sharing the same source, those two were completely unaffected somehow. Because of that, he knew there just had to be a common factor between Pilgrimage and Repentance. Unable to define it, though, Se-Hoon hadn’t dared to release any statements.

There’s no immediate danger yet, but the longer this drags on, the worse it’ll get.

A law with unknown effects was essentially a ticking time bomb. And then there was the issue still plaguing him: the Demon Force. Even during the Heaven Eye incident, he had a feeling that new technologies were being developed within the demon army.

The powers of the Towers and the Abyss were successfully combined…. It must be the work of those Transcendence bastards.

The Transcendence of the Watchers sought a new domain by fusing two opposing forces. Even before he regressed, they’d collaborated with Tuner to craft all sorts of modified soldiers. Yet… what he was seeing now wasn’t just their usual “upgrade.” Their tech had leaped.

Although Heaven Eye and Apostate each had their flaws, they both reached a level close to the Perfect Ones and Harbingers of Destruction…

Perhaps it was just dumb luck that both experiments succeeded. Even then, though, something critical had been proved: given enough time and materials, Transcendence could repeat their experiments again and again.

“Tsk.”

How had Transcendence, once a middling power, grown so explosively? Unfortunately, the answer was obvious.

It’s probably… no, without a doubt, it’s because of me.

Though Se-Hoon wasn’t a Perfect One, he could still handle their powers—multiple at that. In essence, he was the ideal form the Transcendence had always been chasing.

They had been watching—recording—his every move without a doubt. Using him as a live model for their technology.

…That’s one butterfly effect I could’ve done without.

Because of him, humanity had found hope. But also because of him, the Demon Force had gained new possibilities. His regression was both a blessing and a curse to humanity.

The sheer irony made Se-Hoon’s expression turn faintly bitter.

Ding!

The microwave chimed. Realizing that his rice was ready, Se-Hoon shelved his thoughts and returned to setting the table.

“Hm, this is a lot.”

Even though he always ate more side dishes than rice, Eun-Ha’s meals seemed to multiply each day. The few he had taken out had somehow turned the table into an eleven-course feast.

He chuckled wryly.

Guess I’ll have to start eating more. Or buy a second fridge… actually, maybe I should ask Ludwig to make one that uses spatial magic?

Mulling over buying a void fridge, Se-Hoon began eating.

Vrrr-

Lea’s name flashed on his phone’s screen. Why had she called so early in the morning?

Swallowing a bite, Se-Hoon picked up.

“Yeah?”

“Se-Hoon.”

He instantly straightened in his chair. Lea’s voice was serious.

“What happened?”

“Puppeteer contacted me. She wants to make a trade with us.”

“…A trade?”

Se-Hoon raised an eyebrow. He had figured the call would probably be something Puppeteer-related. Still, he hadn’t expected a trade.

“Did she say what she wanted to trade?”

“Yeah, but… um…” Lea trailed off, hesitating like the offer was too absurd to even say aloud.

But that just deepened Se-Hoon’s expression into a frown.

“It’s fine. Just tell me. Whatever it is, we need to know.”

Puppeteer wouldn’t have approached them lightly, especially not during times like these. Whatever the proposal was, it had to be significant.

Knowing that as well, Lea opened her mouth.

“She wants to trade information… about the Law of Repentance.”

“…What?”

Se-Hoon’s expression froze.

Despite all the situations he had been expecting, he hadn’t seen that one coming. Not in the slightest.