abcnovels
Chapter 100 – Collaborator I
Chapter 100 – Collaborator I
[Proofreader – Gun]
Chapter 100
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Collaborator I
Maybe if you’re listening to my tale, you might suddenly find yourself wondering:
‘Are people all too noble?’
Indeed, even those who could reach a superhuman state like saintly figures (excluding witch cosplay like Tang Seorin and personality exceptions like Noh Doha), the people around me (excluding Sim Aryeon) belong to a quite noble category.
But such doubts stem from a misunderstanding of cause and effect:
– How is it that everyone gathered around this person seems uniformly noble and capable? (X)
– Ah, this person must deliberately choose to meet and socialize with noble and capable people! (O)
I, too, have endured a history of harsh betrayals. People fixated on inflated egos, aiming only for strategic blows, possessing tainted and ineffectual personalities…
By filtering out and carefully selecting such individuals, I’ve only just managed to reach my current circle of acquaintances.
“Hey, Mister.”
“Hmm?”
So, on a certain day of the 669th turn, Oh Dokseo asked me a question that left me somewhat bewildered:
“Come to think of it, Mister, you hardly hang out with the early members these days, do you? You’re always with people like Tang Seorin or Noh Doha.”
“Early members? Who are you talking about? If you mean Old Scho…”
“No, no. We met Sword Master only in the 6th turn. I mean the real early members. Jung Sohee, Kim Sieun, Uehara Shino, and others like them.”
“Ah.”
“In [Omniscient Regressors Viewpoint], those people only appeared in the very early stages and aren’t mentioned later on at all. Why don’t you meet them nowadays?”
“… ”
I felt truly nostalgic, like hearing the names of long-forgotten elementary school friends for the first time in ages.
“I don’t remember.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t remember. I gained [Complete Memory Ability] in the 5th turn, but didn’t I primarily interact with them around the 4th turn? From my perspective, that’s already stories spanning thousands of years ago.”
“Oh…”
“In the novel you read, it seems stories from before the 5th turn are also mentioned.”
“Yeah, well… That’s right. In fact, the stories from the 1st and 3rd turns were handled quite importantly. Like when entering Baekhwa High School and encountering Endless Hell, it was emphasized during those moments.”
“Hmm.”
So, Oh Dokseo has ‘read’ my life from the 1st to the 117th turn at this point.
Currently, this episode was the 660th turn from my perspective. In contrast, Oh Dokseo has only observed ‘me up to the 117th turn.’
Thus, Oh Dokseo has been following my life at intervals of approximately 500 turns.
“Seems like the longest adaptation to the world.”
[Omniscient Regressors Viewpoint] was an irregularly serialized work. Simply because my turn moved forward didn’t mean it was regularly serialized like modern web novels.
It wasn’t because the author fell into a slump and spent Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays playing, or if a salaried worker heard it, they would have a stress management skill to adjust.
It was just that the conditions for serialization were different from other novels.
“When major weirdos are defeated, [Omniscient Regressors Viewpoint] especially increases its serialization volume.”
Ten Clans. Udumbara. Meteor Shower.
Especially as the suppression of Endless Hell took place, the serialized volume of [Omniscient Regressors Viewpoint] soared. Naturally, Oh Dokseo, the only ‘reader’ of [Omniscient Regressors Viewpoint], also gained more and more knowledge.
Compared to Oh Dokseo from the 555th turn, who thought that the final boss was Ten Clans, Oh Dokseo from the 669th turn had an overwhelming amount of information.
Of course, there were still many sloppy parts compared to me. But Oh Dokseo possessed knowledge that I didn’t.
“Actually, I’d like to ask you about my early acquaintances. What happened between them and me?”
“Huh?”
“I don’t remember anything properly, so I don’t know what happened in the 4th turn, even though I have a vague idea of who they were. No one does, including me, unless you tell me.”
“Um… Should I tell you then? I’ve been reading the early parts of the novel for about a month, so I remember bits and pieces…”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Okay, got it. Wow, it feels really weird to ask the protagonist of a work about their own story. It’s fascinating. I don’t think a scene like this has ever appeared in any other creation.”
Oh Dokseo cleared his throat.
“Alright. Anyway, so what happened was…”
“Wait. There’s no need to tell me right now.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll ask you in the next turn. There’s a much better way for me to find out than just hearing it as a ‘story’ from you.”
“…?”
Oh Dokseo tilted his head.
“Mister, what kind of nonsense is this?”
And that was exactly the kind of nonsense it was.
2
“I fucking swear! What the hell are you talking about?”
“Uh… sorry…”
Next turn. turn 670.
In the main hall of ‘Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon,’ as usual, SG Nam Seo Gyu’s loud cursing echoed.
The face of Fairy No. 264, who received the cursing upfront, remained unimpressed. The expressions of hundreds of civilians weren’t much different.
Now, more than my faint memories of my birthplace, I missed the infinite regressive homeland that I didn’t long for.
Approaching Oh Dokseo, I greeted him according to the latest trends of the MZ generation.
“Hi. What’s up. Yo.”
“Eek! P-protagonist…”
Naturally, MZ was a generation that lumped together Millennials (1980s, 1990s) and Gen Z (2000s, 2010s), so my greeting style was up-to-date.
In the past, there had been controversy over lumping together a mere 30 years of time, but personally, I found it all quite ambiguous.
I structured my life in intervals of 1,000 years.
Honestly, isn’t 30 years just a fleeting moment?
But it seemed out of place for Oh Dokseo.
“Um, why are you coming to me?”
“Calm down, Teacher Oh Dokseo. I know you read ‘Omniscient Regressors Viewpoint’ as if I were the protagonist. However, that’s a lie and merely a means for aliens to brainwash you…”
“…?”
“My name is Doctor Jang. In the secret society library society, I am known as the Black Book Palace Duke. You must trust me completely…”
“…”
The most fun game in the world. That is, I enjoyed teasing Oh Dokseo for about 10 minutes.
During that time, SG Nam’s head exploded (sorry, Seo Gyu), and Sim Aryeon proved that she was a scream connoisseur, causing 398 survivors to scatter in all directions.
Only Oh Dokseo and I were left. Right now, people haven’t noticed a murder right under their noses, but in fact, the convenience store, souvenir shop, and vending machines placed in the main hall were golden points.
I went around the convenience store and shop, picking up items as needed.
As always, I didn’t forget to put silver bells from the souvenir shop into my pocket. And I poured out all the money I had into the vending machine’s drinks.
“So…”
Oh, Oh Dokseo invested all my fortune in vending machines. Having heard all the truths from me, Oh Dokseo looked this way with a blank expression.
“A while ago in the previous turn, didn’t I form an alliance with you? Now, in turn 670, are you asking me to cooperate to experience something similar to the 4th turn?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright, Mister. It’s confusing in many ways, but let’s start with this. Why did you play such a prank earlier?”
“Well, it’s about reading. Imagine someone boasting that this world is actually a novel and they know all the developments. Wouldn’t that be intriguing? You’d naturally want to mess around, wouldn’t you?”
“I still don’t quite get it…”
It was a sophisticated sentiment to demand from a severe web novel otaku, Hongdae Byung (Hwang Tae), a late 2nd grade patient.
[Proofreader – Gun]
“But… isn’t it too different from the 4th turn for us to be together like this? In [Omniscient Regressors Viewpoint], I’m just an extra who isn’t even mentioned by name.”
“Oh, an extra? That’s unacceptable. It’s saying that ‘that novel’ hasn’t even reached turn 555 yet. The 555th turn of the novel is when you’ll appear as a major character from the start.”
“Oh…”
“Anyway, I’m not expecting a complete repetition of the 4th turn. Just being similar is enough. I just want to experience the lost memories.”
“Well, in that case… I see.”
Oh Dokseo muttered nervously.
Footsteps could be heard from across the main hall. There were seven people.
At the head of the group was a man in his 20s wearing a Hawaiian shirt and holding an axe. He looked at us and frowned deeply.
“Huh? What’s this? There are people here?”
Turn 200.
If left alone, he would be a human who would drop out in the latter half of the tutorial. Awakening ability, Grade E. There was hardly any difference from an ordinary person.
That’s all I remembered, but Oh Dokseo seemed to know something else. The kid quickly whispered to me.
“That’s Number 200. The guy who leads the biggest and fiercest group at Busan Station. Because of him, you’ve been through a lot since turn 1.”
“What? Me?”
“Yeah. He’s always inciting people, creating ranks among themselves… He noticed you and caused dissent among the group, leading to betrayals. Anyway, he caused a cancerous development in the early stages. It made me seriously consider quitting.”
“Oh.”
I couldn’t imagine being mocked by a Grade E ordinary guy in his 20s. It was so fascinating rather than unpleasant that it was uncomfortable.
“Why are you whispering just to yourselves? Huh?”
It seemed like Oh Dokseo and I weren’t liked by Number 200. He approached swinging his axe.
The other followers accompanying Number 200 were equally rough-looking. Perhaps they knew each other even before being summoned to the tutorial dungeon? Mostly from the back alleys.
“How did I behave in turn 4?”
“You were waiting at this vending machine when Number 200 approached and you immediately slashed his throat.”
“What? I just killed someone?”
“Yeah. It was almost like the first cider scene in [Previous turn]. If that scene hadn’t happened, I would have seriously considered quitting.”
“I was such a brutal person in turn 4…”
“Hey, you there in the T-shirt! And the kid with the hat! Can’t you hear me?”
As Number 200 stepped five steps forward, I took a step forward and approached him.
“Don’t you hear me—?”
Thump. I struck his throat with the edge of my hand, causing him to faint. He didn’t die. He just felt the sadness of being separated from his vocal cords.
“Huh?”
The rest of his followers widened their eyes, but they didn’t need to suffer from dry eyes by maintaining that posture for a long time. It took just three seconds for all the followers to collapse with their vocal cords destroyed.
“Wow…”
Oh Dokseo sighed belatedly.
“Are they dead? All of them?”
“No, just their vocal cords are destroyed. They’ll live as mute for the rest of their lives. It’s penalty enough to seal their voices, as you said, for inciting and politicking.”
“Wow, really. Wow. Mister, you’ve really gone through hundreds of turns. The genre has completely changed to something completely different from the early annoying character…”
“Oh. The negativity is strong. Anyway, what’s the next development?”
“Oh. Here, there are seven opponents to deal with. Mister, you get injured in the arm because there’s no healer in Busan Station other than Uehara Shino and Sim Aryeon. But Sim Aryeon’s…”
“Her healing ability is at the level of Madecassol. At this point.”
“Well, it’s much more effective than Madecassol, even if it’s compared to Uehara Shino. Anyway, Mister, let’s make Uehara your ally…”
I enjoyed a nostalgic journey guided by Oh Dokseo.
“Come to think of it, I used to highly rate Uehara Shino more than Sim Aryeon.”
It was a different experience.
A past that had already been forgotten for a long time, chasing after a mirage that remained vaguely as déjà vu.
Even for me, who remembered everything thanks to [Complete Memory Ability], it felt not so bad to have a past that was still unknown.
It must have been a mysterious experience for Oh Dokseo as well.
“Hey. Mister, why are you so good at Japanese?”
“Huh?”
“We just talked to Uehara Shino in Japanese earlier. I couldn’t speak Japanese before, so I used a smartphone translator… Oh, right. you lived for thousands of years, so handling foreign languages should be easy…”
“…?”
Uehara Shino watched our conversation with a puzzled expression. In the distant past, she was considered an S-class awakener, but in the current turn, she was at best classified as a B-class awakener.
A past connection that naturally dropped out of my party members. Remnants of time.
“……”
“Jang-san, is something wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing. Anyway, rest well because we’re challenging the mid-boss tomorrow.”
“Ah, okay.”
In order of the fourth session, we continued to clear the tutorial.
We rallied the survivors, demanded food and medicine from the fairies as intermediate rewards, and systematically killed seven bosses.
To me, who already knew how to forcibly open the ‘exit,’ it was an utter waste of time, but at the same time, it was a journey through time.
Of course, there were points decisively different from the ‘original’ fourth session. It was a history of the past that could never be repeated, no matter what.
“Hmm, normally from today, I should meet the survivors and use [Time Seal] only for those who want it…”
Sneakily, Oh Dokseo caught my eye.
“…I can’t follow that. Because, you see, the people you used [Time Seal] on are all probably trapped in the memorial stones.”
I silently stared at the Busan Station dining area. It was a place I hadn’t visited in a long time.
Gravestones.
Rows of crystal tombstones lined the corridor of the dining area, visible only to me. Thanks to them, it looked more like a communal graveyard than a restaurant when I looked at it.
With my hands in my pockets, I remained silent. The sensation of silver drops echoed softly.
Oh Dokseo cautiously asked,
“Um, sir, can you see… those tombstones?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you tell me how many there are in total?”
“Well, I could count the ones placed in this restaurant, but I can tell you exactly how many tombstones there are throughout the entire Busan Station dungeon. I memorized that. There are 101.”
“……”
Here, there were a total of 101 dreams, 101 afterlives, and 101 tombstones lying dormant.
Indeed.
The number of civilians originally summoned to the ‘Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon’ was not vaguely around 399.
It was 500.
It started with 500 survivors.
Among them, 101 people were sealed in time by me.
[Proofreader – Gun]