YM778.TV Chapter 206
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Chapter 206
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The Antagonist III
5
We decided to leave the tombstone and return to reality.
No matter how real the Crystal Graveyard felt, it was ultimately a world of my own creation—a world of fantasy. We needed to return to reality to make some preparations.
Of course, Kim Joocheol was terrified.
"Doctor Jang! You can\'t just leave us like this. You must return. If you don\'t, we really will...!"
"I\'ll return within a week, at the latest. Please protect your wife and child while you wait."
"A week..."
Kim Joocheol was trembling with fear. After calming him down and escaping from the graveyard, we were greeted by the fresh air.
A soccer stadium turned to ruins.
But unlike the burning chaos that engulfed the entire Seo-gu district of Busan inside the graveyard, the real-world village was quiet.
"...I never realized before. Time travel can push a person\'s mind to such extremes."
The Saintess, still holding my hand, muttered beside me.
"Kim Joocheol and the citizens were driven to madness, but if you look at it calmly, it\'s only been 1,000 days. Not even three full years have repeated. And yet, they\'re like this..."
She glanced at me.
I knew what she wanted to say. I\'ve been a time traveler for thousands of years, yet I seem relatively sane.
I shrugged.
"I keep living through my life, but they only relive a single day."
"...Is that really the only reason?"
"Anyway, let\'s move quickly. Even if he\'s forgotten in the real world, I don\'t want to leave Kim Joocheol like that."
"I agree."
We traveled across Busan.
Our goal was simple: to observe whether similar phenomena occurred in the Crystal Tombstones where people other than Kim Joocheol were sealed.
The result?
"Hmm."
I let out a groan.
"They\'re all infected."
It wasn\'t just Kim Joocheol.
After checking only 50 tombstones, I found that all 50 people were infected with the "24-hour time loop virus."
We had to assume that the roughly 500,000 [Time-Sealed] individuals across the Korean Peninsula were all infected with the same anomaly.
Moreover, after traveling around Busan all day, we discovered another fact.
"Doctor Jang. It seems that this is also affecting people in the real world."
"Hmm."
That\'s right.
As we saw in the tombstone, many ordinary citizens appeared in Kim Joocheol\'s dream.
Most of them had died or gone missing during the apocalypse in reality.
But about one-tenth of them were still alive, living in Seo-gu, Busan.
These survivors, that is, the ordinary citizens who appeared in Kim Joocheol\'s dream, were—somehow—"sleeping for longer periods" in reality.
"Sigh. Don\'t get me started. The weather\'s been so hot lately that I keep getting strange thoughts."
We managed to get specific testimony from one of the survivors, a soccer player who had once been on the same team as Kim Joocheol.
(Of course, he had no memory of Kim Joocheol or the fact that he was repeating the same 24 hours in his dream.)
"What kind of strange thoughts...?"
"Hmm. It\'s hard to explain, but it\'s like déjà vu? You know, that feeling that you\'ve experienced something before? I\'ve been getting that feeling a lot lately."
"......"
An abnormal symptom.
If it had been just this one person, we could have dismissed it as a case of heatstroke, but every survivor we found in Seo-gu reported the same symptom.
While the severity varied, they all shared the common experience of déjà vu.
All of them were citizens who had gone mad, infected with the time-loop virus in Kim Joocheol\'s dream.
"...Wait a minute."
The Saintess\'s expression darkened like never before as the investigation progressed.
"Doctor Jang. Didn\'t you say that the number of people who have been time-sealed nationwide exceeds 500,000?"
"That\'s correct."
"...So, if all 500,000 people are infected with the time-loop virus, and if everyone appearing in their dreams is also infected, and the symptoms are manifesting in reality as well..."
I nodded.
"Yes. It won\'t be long before the entire Korean Peninsula starts experiencing the same symptoms."
6
An emergency meeting of the Time Travelers\' Alliance was convened.
I briefly wrote on the blackboard to inform the members of the \'unknown anomaly\' and its impact.
――――――――――
[Anomaly\'s Identity = Nut?]
1. Inside the Crystal Tombstones, the sealed individuals are experiencing a \'24-hour time loop.\'
2. Originally, their memories should reset every 24 hours, but for some reason, the memories are being retained.
3. This phenomenon is spreading to the people around them.
4. The anomaly is not only manifesting inside the tombstones but also in reality. People affected by it in reality are experiencing a sense of déjà vu.
――――――――――
After hearing the explanation, Noh Doha frowned.
"Damn it. What kind of anomaly is this now? Are you saying that an epidemic is spreading through dreams? And that people around the world are becoming half-time travelers because of it...?"
"We still don\'t know for sure."
I spoke calmly.
"But it seems likely that multiple anomalies have overlapped. I\'d like to ask all of you as well: have you been experiencing strong feelings of déjà vu lately?"
The members looked at each other.
Seo Gyu was the first to speak.
"Come to think of it... this morning while eating breakfast, I had this strong feeling, like, \'I\'ve seen this exact scene before somewhere.\'"
"M-me too."
Sim Aryeon hesitated before speaking.
"Last time, when the guild master asked me to draw that... The Admin of All-Play? Anyway, the picture of the blue butterfly. While I was drawing, I thought, \'Wait, haven\'t I drawn this exact same thing before?\'"
"I have had similar experiences as well."
Yoo Jiwon agreed.
"I thought it was just my imagination, but if it\'s an anomaly, that would make sense. To be honest, even this scene in the meeting room feels strangely familiar."
As expected.
I have time-sealed a total of 500,000 people.
It’s highly likely that Seo Gyu, Sim Aryeon, and Yoo Jiwon appeared in the dreams of one of those 500,000 at some point.
"This anomaly likely involves multiple overlapping concepts. It seems \'Valhalla\' is part of it."
"Valhalla? The place in Norse mythology where warriors keep killing each other even in the afterlife, right...?"
"Precisely."
Valhalla.
One of the realms of the afterlife.
The souls of warriors invited to Valhalla fight and kill each other every morning, only to be resurrected by evening.
"The concept of an afterlife where the same \'day\' repeats endlessly only exists in Valhalla."
"Hmm..."
"This anomaly likely has the ability to manipulate the concept of the afterlife. Hell, the abyss. A place where souls that have vanished from reality gather."
Tap, tap.
I wrote on the chalkboard as I explained.
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"The people I sealed with [Time Seal] completely disappear from this reality. In a way, the inside of the crystal tombstone is no different from the afterlife. At least, this anomaly seems to define it that way."
"...So, you\'re saying the anomaly has corrupted your tombstones?"
"Correct."
I affirmed the Saintess\'s words.
"More precisely, the ultimate goal is probably to corrupt me, Doctor Jang."
"...Corrupt you."
"When you think about it, what people experience inside the crystal tombstones is just a \'miniature\' version of what I go through. I\'m a regressor, and these people also experience regression, even if it\'s only for 24 hours. Although I don\'t like using this analogy..."
Tap. I added more to the chalkboard.
――――――――――
[Doctor Jang = Alien god]
-Regression ability, Perfect memory ability
[Kim Joocheol and other sealers = Apostles]
-Regression ability (24 hours), Memory ability
――――――――――
I turned to face the others.
"If push comes to shove, this scenario could very well become reality."
"...!"
The Saintess\'s eyes widened.
"If you\'re on the same level as the Alien god, then the strategy would be to attack and bring down the apostles first...?"
"Yes. Not that I am the Alien god, but the anomaly treats me as such."
It\'s the classic strategy of striking down the lieutenants to get to the general.
"To do this, the anomaly would need to make me and the apostles as similar as possible. Now, what was the biggest difference between me and Kim Joocheol?"
"...Memory."
"Exactly. Not only am I aware that I\'m regressing, but I also remember everything perfectly thanks to my [Perfect Memory Ability]. However, Kim Joocheol had no idea that the same 24 hours were repeating."
So, the anomaly forces them to become more alike.
It defines Kim Joocheol as a \'replica\' of Doctor Jang.
Not just Kim Joocheol, but all 500,000 time-sealed individuals are forced to resemble Doctor Jang in some way.
And if the anomaly can bring all 500,000 people under its influence or make them experience hell――.
"It could also deliver a blow to me."
"......"
"I believe this is the kind of calculation the anomaly has made. It\'s still in the realm of speculation, though."
Silence filled the meeting room.
Noh Doha, unfazed by the silence, leaned on his chin crookedly.
"In short, this anomaly is targeting you..."
"That\'s correct. Whether it had a purpose or intent, the result is that I was indeed targeted."
"Is this a common occurrence? I mean, is it normal for an anomaly to specifically target a person and execute a detailed strategy...?"
"――No."
It was not I but the Saintess who answered Noh Doha\'s question.
"To the anomalies, you\'re not human."
"......"
"To begin with, anomalies don\'t distinguish between humans and non-humans. Everything is just a phenomenon to them. It\'s just that the 500,000 afterlives you\'ve created seem like a tempting prey to this anomaly."
I agreed with the Saintess\'s perspective.
"In any case, it\'s clear that an anomaly capable of toying with \'afterlife\' or \'hell\' is extremely dangerous. We must act as quickly as possible..."
"Doctor Jang."
The Saintess interrupted me. It was a rare occurrence, so I was a bit surprised.
Now that I think about it, the fact that the Saintess, who usually participated remotely via [Telepathy], was attending the meeting in person at the National Road Management Headquarters was itself unusual.
"What\'s the matter?"
"I\'m sorry. But I thought it was urgent to inform you right away. Please check the post that was uploaded to SGNet 30 seconds ago."
I took out my smartphone.
Although there were many posts being uploaded in real-time since it was midday, I instinctively knew which post the Saintess was referring to just by the title.
-Anonymous: This World is Regressing.
I immediately clicked on the post.
-Anonymous: This World is Regressing.
-Sorry for the serious topic. But I couldn’t bear the pain any longer, so I picked up my smartphone.
-The truth is, I\'ve been feeling déjà vu for a while now.
-Whether I wake up in the morning or lie down at night, the sense that I\'ve seen this exact scene somewhere before is so vivid that it feels strange.
-But today, I finally realized. This isn’t déjà vu. I’ve really gone through this exact situation several times, and similar ones tens of thousands of times.
-The Ten Clans have been exterminated countless times. I\'ve gone to war to capture meteor showers dozens, hundreds of times. It’s actually strange that I didn’t realize it sooner.
-Everyone will think I\'m talking nonsense, but I\'m serious. Maybe this very thought is because an anomaly has possessed me, but the déjà vu is too vivid.
-My head feels like it’s going to explode. It’s unbearable. When I close my eyes, I see myself dying over and over, hundreds of times.
-My skull has been shattered, my intestines have been severed, my limbs have been pierced, and my whole body has been torn apart.
-I want to die. No, I’m already dying. Why is this horrible thing happening to me?
-I’m not crazy. The world is.
"......"
I wasn’t the only one who confirmed the post. Everyone who heard the Saintess was also checking SGNet.
Seo Gyu was flustered.
"H-Hyung. Should we... block this? The comments are increasing in real-time..."
"Don’t force censorship. Use the hero syndrome macro to push it to the back pages. If we intervene clumsily, it could get worse."
"Oh. Y-Yes."
Despite saying that, both I and everyone present felt it.
This was just a temporary measure.
The \'enemy\'s\' attack was likely just beginning in earnest.
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