Chapter 174

The pure-white flashing of the world soon shifted into solid white — and when I opened my eyes again —

—so…. I signed the contract today.

I was sitting on the familiar playground swing.

What the?

Did I go back? Have I been regressed again?

Looking around to figure out what was going on, I got up from the swing. Then from the other end of the phone, Kim Wonho's voice called out to me.

—Hyung? Are you listening to me?

"Uh, yeah…. Hey, Wonho. Sorry, let's talk again in a bit. Something urgent just came up on my end."

—What are you talking about, hyung. That's not it.

If I really had been regressed, first thing was to go find Dan Haru. As I moved to hang up with that thought, Kim Wonho came out with a line that made no sense, along with a sound like a modulated voice being torn apart.

—That's great. You'll do great. And Lime's a solid company. …is what you're supposed to say.

"…what?"

label: Retty Retry!

Then, another flash.

When I opened my eyes not long after —

—so…. I signed the contract today.

I was sitting on the swing again.

---

After the same thing had repeated about five times over, I had to admit it — I was trapped in some crappy-ass loop.

Forget the line— that Retty son of a bitch is dead.

I tried every possible thing to escape this loop, but no matter what I did, that [Retry!] line would pop up and I'd end up back on this swing. At this point there was no missing it — this wasn't a "regression" like the others. This was Retty screwing with me.

label: Retty Retry!

Back on the swing yet again, I hung up on Kim Wonho without a second thought and spoke to the empty air.

"Hey. Cut the crap and come out."

label: Retty Retry!

"If this kind of thing could break my mental, I'd have folded ages ago. Cut the shit and come out."

label: Retty Retry!

"Yeah, sure. If what you want is to spend forever here riding swings with me, be my guest."

He'd probably been expecting me to bawl please get me out of here. Yeah, keep dreaming.

I planted myself firmly on the swing and decided I wasn't going to care however many times this punk hit reset. And in an instant, countless [Retry!] letters flooded my field of vision.

label: Retty Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry! Retry!

"Yeah, not gonna work."

Try it for a hundred days, you bastard. Like I'd fall for anything you say.

I'd already gotten plenty of infinite-loop experience during the Lee Yugeon situation last time. And on top of that, since this wasn't even real, there was no reason for me to be scared of this punk.

After a long stretch of me not reacting to any of it, a new window finally rose above the bright-red [Retry!] windows.

title: R3TTY-1SSU3D QU3ST content: Don't get in my way. accept reward: Return to the real world.

"Yeah, no."

The second I saw the Retty punk's quest, I casually flipped it the bird.

Then the world flipped once more.

But this time it wasn't the miserable playground swing.

Like a spectator-view camera, I was watching the empty playground from a distance.

"…Sangyul?"

The small neighborhood playground I felt I now knew inside out — down to which piece of equipment had which graffiti scratched on it.

In that whole wide playground, only one person was moving.

Not me — the neighborhood kid, Park Sangyul.

Judging from him looking exactly the same as the day he'd met me, the timing seemed to match that day — but why wasn't I there?

While I was puzzling over that, Park Sangyul — waiting alone for his noona — was clambering bravely up onto the slide. In the split second I was thinking what is this even —

"What the — !"

Park Sangyul, working his way eagerly up the steps, missed his footing and pitched right off the top of the tall structure. I watched it happen. I wanted to bolt over and catch the falling kid that very second, but I couldn't move, like I was tied to something.

Unable to bear watching the child fall, I clamped my eyes shut, and across my now-black vision, Retty's words were etched again.

title: R3TTY-1SSU3D QU3ST content: Don't get in my way. accept reward: Return to the real world. penalty on refusal: — Deletion of the 'Kang Hajin who was with Park Sangyul' timeline.

"…ah, this actual psycho son of a bitch."

I heard the sound of my reason snapping clean, but I had to force myself to hold it together as best I could.

Hold it in, Kang Hajin. Shake here and you're dancing to that punk's tune.

But apparently he'd caught on that the hit had already landed once — Retty kept coming at me the same way.

title: R3TTY-1SSU3D QU3ST content: Don't get in my way. accept reward: Return to the real world. penalty on refusal: — Deletion of the 'Kang Hajin who was with Park Sangyul' timeline. — Deletion of the 'Park Sang-ah who safely met Park Sangyul after school' timeline. — Deletion of the 'Kim Wonho who moved to Lime Entertainment' timeline. — …

The Retty punk just kept piling on the hostages, no end in sight.

Now in front of my eyes, endless visions and hallucinations started overlaying one on top of another without stop.

Park Sang-ah, arriving at the playground and screaming at the sight of her injured little brother.

Kim Wonho, having failed at finals, drifting listlessly, looking into part-time jobs — like the future version of him I'd once seen.

The penalties, piling on and on, at last consolidated into a single line.

title: R3TTY-1SSU3D QU3ST penalty on refusal: — Deletion of 'Fixed Regressor Kang Hajin's timeline.'

In that instant, my head was flooded with a mass of thoughts.

Is this a bluff? Or is it a threat he can actually make real?

Does Retty have that kind of power?

This is the punk who actually handed Dan Haru the power of infinite regression.

And Thirteen too — hadn't they said that once all this was over, I'd have to choose whether to delete the 'Fixed Regressor' personality or leave it be?

Faintly recalling the Time Administrator authorities Thirteen had once explained to me, I glared at the red quest window in front of me.

Stay calm, Kang Hajin. Nothing's actually happened yet.

This is just an illusion.

Even as I thought that, somehow it felt like all the blood in my body was draining away.

First, in the hope of pulling some kind of information out of him, I decided to try talking to the Retty punk.

"Yo, loser."

No — this is picking a fight.

For someone who'd supposedly decided to somehow get a conversation going, my mental state right now was way too rough for it.

Laying my delinquent mood out without a shred of hesitation, I figured screw it, I'm all in and just started outright picking a fight.

"Scared I'd verbally tear you apart like last time, so you hid behind text again? Classic trash-system move. No confidence you can win fair and square, so it's always crap like this to threaten people with."

I put my soul into the sarcastic delivery, but the red letters in front of me stayed floating there, motionless. Still, I didn't stop needling.

"Delete it, punk. What, you thought I'd be scared? I already know the Selected Regressor is Dan Haru, and I've pretty much figured out what you're up to. If I disappear, Thirteen said he'd chase you to the ends of the universe and beat the crap out of you. Real talk — it's me that disappears, not Kang Hajin himself. No skin off my back, punk."

I didn't even know what I was saying — the words came pouring out of my mouth on their own.

Even so, in my head, I was piecing together fragments of info like a puzzle. Pulling out the pieces most likely to hit a nerve for the Retty punk, I thought through the situation.

"You're doing all this to become human, right? Live long enough as a Time Administrator and the human world starts looking good, is that it? But I heard Time Administrators can't take on any kind of living form. So how are you planning to pull it off?"

Then, for the first time, the vast open space vibrated slightly.

Seeing a brief graphics glitch flicker over the red text, I figured this was my chance to rattle that punk and let whatever came to mind pour out.

"I don't know how you're planning to become human, but to become one, you'd have to give up your Time Administrator authority, right? Except if you weren't a Time Administrator, you wouldn't have the power to delete my timeline, or to throw your weight around like this either. So what are you, then? Actually — how did you hand Dan Haru the regression power in the first place?"

Come to think of it — when I first faced off with this punk last time, it had been a similar feeling.

He hadn't said he'd "regress me" — he'd said something like he'd "briefly borrow" the Selreg kid's timeline.

Hm. I think I might be onto something.

The nonsense crap I'd started specifically to draw a reaction out of the Retty kid kept taking on actual shape. To hide my rattled feelings, I put my S-tier expressiveness acting skills to work and forced a poker face.

A huge rush of thoughts whirled through my head, and the space rippled along with them.

Nauseous enough that I might throw up any second, I forced strength into my legs so I wouldn't lose my balance and go down.

"For starters — the one thing I'm sure of is that you're scared of me and the Selected Regressor meeting."

Somewhere along the way, the space had filled up with darkness.

The feeling of floating through that wide, hollowed-out emptiness was the worst.

"And even so, you can't land a direct hit on me. Why? Even when it looks like you're moving time, there's always some gap in it somewhere."

I thought of Dan Haru.

Dan Haru had repeated regressions because he was unhappy.

The more he regressed, the unhappier he got — and unable to bear the crushing weight of it, he'd fully split his original base personality from his Regressor personality.

But after meeting me, Dan Haru had grown attached to this timeline, and that had become a major obstacle in the Retty son-of-a-bitch's plan.

Retty would want Dan Haru to stay lonely and miserable forever.

Because only then would Dan Haru endlessly repeat the regressions, generating countless severed timelines in the process — and the more of that happened, the wider the gap between his base personality and his Regressor personality would grow.

Having followed the thread that far, one truly enormous picture rose up in front of me.

"You. You're planning to take Dan Haru's body."

In that instant, the whole space came crashing down.

label: Retty Just as I thought. You're too dangerous to leave as you are.

And once again, I was sucked into some other space.

---

When I opened my eyes, the ceiling I was looking at was more familiar than that dreary playground — and yet, at the same time, unfamiliar.

"…this is—"

Floor-to-ceiling glass that let in enough light to force you awake at dawn, and wallpaper done cleanly in my favorite accent color.

Me, lying alone on a small, narrow, rectangular bed.

"…this is my house."

To be precise, the house we'd move into "a few years from now."

Back at that day at twenty-nine that I couldn't forget if I tried, I jerked upright.

Just as I was about to check what had happened, I spotted someone standing across the room from me.

"Dan Haru?"

Dan Haru — his fine, bright hair the same as ever — came toward me in a white shirt and black pants.

But seeing those clear brown eyes glowing red, I could tell — this was Dan Haru, and yet not.

"Hi?"

"…'hi' my ass, you psycho."

Now we're past regression and moving on to #possession?

At the absurd turn events had taken, my teeth ground together hard.