“How… how do you know that?”

The Blood Demon glared at me with eyes full of bewilderment and rage.

If I could help it, I didn’t want to do this either. But this time, I had no choice. Because—

「I already knew the Blood Demon’s ending.」

I studied the Blood Demon’s face closely. The look of a middle-aged man stained by years. But when the scenario had just begun, the Blood Demon was very young.

[Tale fragment, “A Common Tragic Little Sister,” begins its story.]

「“Hahaha! Cheon-a! What’s your dream?”」

And his little sister was even younger than that.

「“The strongest in Murim! The supreme ruler beyond the borders!”」

There she was—Yeom Cheon-a, the Blood Demon’s little sister, shouting boldly.

And the next moment, the voice flipped, and the wail of the Blood Demon, Yeom Baekho, rang out.

「“Cheon-a! No! Cheon-a…!”」

[Tale fragment, “A Common Tragic Little Sister,” stops its story.]

Listening to the voice of the tale spilling out, I got chills from the “Sophist of Evil” all over again.

“How… how do you have that tale?”

Maybe the 40th round’s Cheon Inho had even accounted for the Blood Demon becoming the king of Seoul’s underground city.

That was why he’d had this “tale fragment.”

“Does that matter?”

I smiled faintly like Cheon Inho and stared at the Blood Demon as he staggered.

In some ways, the Blood Demon resembled Yoo Joonghyuk.

He wasn’t as strong as Yoo Joonghyuk, he wasn’t born with any special ability, and he didn’t even have a single reader who loved his story. And yet, he resembled Yoo Joonghyuk.

In all those countless rounds, he had never once managed to save his little sister.

“Do you have Cheon-a’s soul?”

The Blood Demon lunged at me like a madman and grabbed me by the collar.

“Tell me. Do you have Cheon-a’s soul?”

“If I have her soul, what changes?”

The Blood Demon’s shaking stopped for a moment.

“Are you going to bring her back to life? Knowing exactly what you did, you’re saying you’ll revive her now? Do you think she’d be happy to come back?”

“What do you know…?”

“Even if she comes back, you won’t be forgiven. Because she told me herself.”

Blood Demon Yeom Baekho.

Forty years ago, when the “first scenario” began right in front of his eyes, he was trapped in a single room alone with his little sister.

“That you were more hateful than anyone else in this world.”

Proof of worth. A scenario where you had to prove through violence that you were more precious and superior than other living beings.

The Blood Demon proved it, and he survived alone.

“I… I. I—”

“I know why you’re searching for the Great Art of Regression. But let me tell you something, Yeom Baekho.”

Just as Kim Dokja once did, some existences spend the rest of their lives atoning for the fact they survived. Along the way, someone sacrifices themselves, and someone else can’t bear that pain and chooses to become an even worse person.

“Do you think if you regress, everything will become something that never happened?”

Erasing his original sin. Returning everything he did to survive to “something that never happened.”

That was why Blood Demon Yeom Baekho wanted Yoo Joonghyuk’s “regression” so badly.

The Blood Demon’s grip on my collar tightened with hard strength.

“So you’re trying to delude me again with strange words, Sophist of Evil. I won’t talk long. Hand over the Tyrant King’s head right now. Of course, even if you hand it over, you’ll die.”

“Why? Because I know your secret?”

I laughed.

“Even if the Tyrant King’s head could make regression possible, you can’t change any past.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because even if you regress, the memory of your little sister that you killed won’t disappear.”

In the end, Yoo Joonghyuk’s dilemma applies to every regressor.

The world he abandoned becomes the regressor’s shackles forever.

But the Blood Demon was even crazier than I thought.

“Then fine. I’ll erase my memories too.”

In a voice seeped in vile madness, the Blood Demon kept talking.

“I’ll turn the world back, and erase even my memories, and then it becomes something that never happened. She and I won’t remember what happened this round. A thing nobody remembers is a thing that never happened. Then…!”

“If that’s ‘regression,’ you’ve already regressed dozens of times.”

“What?”

“I’m saying you already regressed. What number world do you think this is for Yoo Joonghyuk?”

In a sense, the regressor of this world isn’t unique. In this world, countless regressors exist together—regressors who don’t even realize they’ve regressed.

“You already regressed forty-one times, and repeated the same choice a forty-second time.”

Not every human who loses their memories makes the same choices in the same situation. Rather, because they don’t remember their past life, their choices are pure—and maybe infinitely heavy.

Forty-two choices he couldn’t remember making. Those choices proved the Blood Demon.

Not once had he ever died in his little sister’s place.

“That can’t be… that can’t be. I—!”

The Blood Demon staggered and released my collar.

Straightening my shirt collar, I asked,

“Is regression really that desperate for you? Is what you want truly ‘regression’? What you want is…”

Some desires don’t exist until they’re written down.

That’s why, sometimes, the writer’s role is to describe precisely the desire even the character themselves refuses to face.

In that sense, a writer is—

[Exclusive skill, “Incitement Lv.???” is activated!]

Maybe a kind of instigator who grants desires to the characters.

“To be forgiven by your little sister.”

The Blood Demon’s eyes widened as if he’d been struck by lightning.

Even knowing this was the trap I’d dug, he couldn’t escape it.

His history had made him that way.

“…How do I get her to forgive me?”

“…”

“I know you can use [Summon the Dead]. Can you call her? Just one more time—let me meet her and talk to her.”

“What can you give me?”

“I’ll give you what you want. Anything you want!”

The conversation had reached the point I wanted. The Blood Demon, completely taken in by [Incitement], wouldn’t even remember what he’d just said for a while.

“Unfortunately, I can’t summon your sister’s soul. Because we can’t find your sister’s ‘head’ anymore.”

One of the conditions for [Summon the Dead] was the summoned target’s “head.” So Yeom Cheon-a, the Blood Demon’s little sister who died with her head exploding in the first scenario, could never be revived no matter what.

“And even if you meet her, you still won’t be forgiven.”

“Then what do you want me to do! If I can’t meet my little sister, and even if I meet her I’m fated not to be forgiven—”

“There’s only one way.”

I grinned.

“I’ll make you regress.”

I thrust forward the dumpling on the table.

“Eat this dumpling.”

The Blood Demon clenched his lips and glared at me.

He must have noticed too. The familiar, strange smell coming off this dumpling.

After staring at it for a long time, the Blood Demon finally loosened his expression and let out a deep sigh.

“A dumpling with virulent poison in it?”

“Something more lethal than virulent poison is in it.”

This dumpling was made from the memories of the Blood Demon’s little sister, Yeom Cheon-a—memories Cheon Inho obtained when he destroyed <Underworld>.

“What happens if I eat it?”

“You can meet Yeom Cheon-a. Of course, not a living Yeom Cheon-a. And it’ll be hard to have any proper conversation.”

“…”

“Even if you eat this, you won’t be forgiven. Your life won’t change.”

“Then why should I eat it?”

“Face what you did to survive.”

With trembling eyes, the Blood Demon stared down at the dumpling.

“Eat it, and go meet your sister. Beg for the obvious, one-sided forgiveness she will never hear. Then come back wounded by the fact that nothing changed.”

“You said you’d make me regress. How is that regression?”

“That is regression. Being unable to change anything.”

The Blood Demon lifted his head and looked at me.

“If you could change something with just one regression, would Yoo Joonghyuk have needed to regress that many times?”

Maybe my words landed somewhere in him. For a moment, the Blood Demon stood there with a stiff face, blankly staring—then he let out a sneer, and snatched the dumpling out of my hand.

“Sophist of Evil. I already know your objective.”

“Yes. And as you know, the moment you eat it, I…”

“I’ll give you time until I wake up again.”

He answered so readily that I was taken aback. As if my expression amused him, the Blood Demon added,

“When I wake up again, if you’re still in front of my eyes, I’ll make you into a reanimated corpse too.”

With those words, the Blood Demon took a huge bite out of the dumpling in his hand. At the same time as a sweet scent spread, I saw his eyes turn hollow and sunken.

+

Completion: ★★★☆☆
Overall: A dumpling shaped from someone’s horrific nightmare. Anyone who eats this dumpling shares the nightmare the memory-holder endured for 30 minutes.

+

The Blood Demon had probably already returned to the hellish first scenario by now. The time limit of the first scenario was 30 minutes—exactly matching the dumpling’s duration.

There, he would meet his little sister again.

“Is it over?”

At the voice from behind, I turned. Yoo Joonghyuk, who had been hiding in the darkness with the Ten Evils, appeared.

“It’s over.”

“In the end, you accomplished your goal with nothing but your tongue.”

“Honestly, this wasn’t the best method.”

Staring at the Blood Demon frozen in place, I spoke.

“We could have asked the Blood Demon for help.”

There was no need to rip open his wounds and dig through his horrific trauma.

Even so, there was a reason I chose this method.

[An anonymous Recorder is watching your story.]

Because there were “eyes” watching this story.

[An anonymous Recorder admires the way you dealt with the “Blood Demon.”]
[Anonymous Recorders admire how you handle fear.]
[Anonymous Recorders show favor toward your story.]

Anonymous Recorders. Maybe, like Heavenly Flying Fox or Cheon Inho, there were more “Horror Recorders” whose true names weren’t revealed.

It felt similar to being watched by constellations, but the feeling was subtly different.

If constellations were closer to “readers,” then these were closer to “critics,” maybe. Anyway, those critics’ interest was pinned on me right now.

[A total of 9 “anonymous Recorders” have shown you favor.]

And their interest—

[You can convert the Recorders’ “favor” into coins. Convert?]

—came back to me as an enormous amount of coins.

[You have acquired 180,000 coins!]

Right now, it was income I absolutely needed. To clear the final scenario, I had to raise Cheon Inho’s overall stats, and there were things I still needed to buy from the “Goblin Pouch.”

Watching the Blood Demon frozen in place, Gyeong Sein asked,

“Wouldn’t it be better to just kill him now?”

“The Blood Demon has achieved the ultimate mastery of the tale 「King of the Dead」. If we ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) kill him, the reanimated corpses across Seoul’s entire underground will go berserk all at once.”

In the end, the best option here was to put the Blood Demon to sleep for a while.

After making the judgment quickly, Yoo Joonghyuk said,

“The Blood Demon’s warehouse is upstairs.”

“Let’s move.”

We headed straight up to the Seoul Station stairs.

Even as we passed by, the Blood Demon’s reanimated corpses didn’t try to stop us. They must have received that order.

“You.”

After climbing flight after flight of dim landings where lights flickered, Yoo Joonghyuk spoke as if in passing.

“Do you really think regression can’t change anything?”

Looks like he’d eavesdropped on my conversation with the Blood Demon.

With a bitter smile, I answered,

“No. I actually think a little differently.”

Maybe regression itself can’t change anything.

A tragedy that already happened is eternal, and no one can be saved through regression.

And yet, I know people who changed through that “regression.”

“Either way, everything remains as a story.”

“What do you mean?”

“Even if nothing changes in the story, the person reading it can change.”

Yoo Joonghyuk seemed to think about what I meant for a moment.

Meanwhile, Ye Hyeonwoo, who had been walking ahead, stopped.

“We’re here.”

“There’s a trap. I’ll remove it.”

Lee Dansu hurried forward. After he dismantled the trap, a rumbling sound followed, and a gigantic iron door opened.

So this really was the Blood Demon’s warehouse.

“As expected of the Blood Demon.”

All kinds of relics found across the entire scenario were gathered there. From special relics like the Grass-Cutting Sword and the Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds, to the “usable spear” we were looking for.

Yoo Joonghyuk pulled out a spear from a corner, examined the shaft, and said,

“It’s the weapon of Guan Yu, Lord Yunchang.”

The Green Dragon Crescent Blade. As expected of the relic of the greatest warrior of the Central Plains, it had an incredible dignity.

“Are you going to take that?”

“No.”

Shaking his head, Yoo Joonghyuk’s gaze was fixed somewhere else.

“There’s a better spear.”

“Something more usable than that?”

“Not just usable.”

Striding over, Yoo Joonghyuk pulled out a single spear planted in the darkness. The moment the blade came free, a dazzling ray of light filled the dim warehouse.

I recognized that spear at once.

The material at the stage right before completing Yoo Joonghyuk’s final spear—the Dark Heaven Moon Halberd.

There it was: a beautiful spear halberd, as if carved out of a deep sunset.

“For now, it’s the best spear.”

The Yellow Heaven Moon Halberd.

That spear could definitely replace the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.

More than anything, because it had durability on par with the True Heaven Tyrant Blade, the Yellow Heaven Moon Halberd was perfectly suited for Yoo Joonghyuk to use right now.

The Ten Evils, who entered the warehouse with us and rummaged through things, were busy letting out exclamations of admiration here and there. One of them couldn’t shake his thief’s instincts and was diligently stealing relics.

“Somehow, it feels like the Ark’s internal map would be here too.”

“Yeah. If it’s the Blood Demon, he’d probably have it.”

Ten minutes, twenty minutes. The Ten Evils and I kept searching the Blood Demon’s warehouse, but unfortunately, no item containing information about the Ark showed up.

“This is bad. Now time is—huh? Cheon Inho. What are you doing over there?”

I was staring at the countless “heads” displayed like a banquet along the warehouse wall.

They were probably heads the Blood Demon had collected to turn into reanimated corpses.

“I don’t think we’ll need a map.”

I said, looking at one of those heads.

“Because I found something better.”