Regressor Instruction Manual

Chapter 1468. Continental War (48) [Illustration]

Of course, it wasn’t just a simple smile. What mattered was that it was a smile filled with a kind of purity, as if I had returned to the beginning of time itself. It had to look like I was genuinely delighted to see people die, like I was offering pure admiration and joy for the things Jung Jin-Ho had done.

Adding any extra words wouldn’t suit the moment.

‘Explaining this or that would just look lame.’

At the very least, it wouldn’t match the image of death I had in mind. Of course, the current Jung Jin-Ho was unaware of the Young Death's existence. He would only come to realize and revere that being at the very end, once he teetered on the edge of his own demise.

Right now, it felt like this was the right answer. It was a decision I could make because I judged that inserting a fairytale-like event where he met the Young Death, communicated with it, and interacted with it wouldn’t really hurt the plausibility.

No, perhaps he absolutely needed this event.

Naturally, I found myself recalling the first time I met Jin-Ho. Thinking about it, it had always felt like he accepted our demands a little too easily.

Sure, back then, he was being chased across the entire continent, exhausted, and the only support he had was an unknown group that included Rafael and me, but even so, it was hard to understand how easily he went along with us.

Despite his size, he was meticulous with deep thoughts. Perhaps the provocation, asking if he didn’t want to kill more and hinting that his time was running out, had worked, but I felt like there was a decisive reason he accepted our offer.

I was pretty sure he said something like...

“Well... it’s not like we have any other options. We understand our situation well enough... Whether we trust you or not, the result will be the same... There are a few things that bother me... but... I like it.”

This alone wasn’t a good enough reason to trust some mysterious boy who appeared out of nowhere. Just looking at how he drank my blood without any hesitation made that clear. He didn’t use the other Brigade members as test subjects.

If I remembered it correctly, he was the first to take it himself without the slightest reluctance.

I could still vividly remember how his hand trembled little by little when he received the potion bottle filled with my blood, and the very first words he said after finishing his evolution were...

“Ha... hahaha! Hahahahahahaha! It existed... it really existed! Hahahahaha!”

And right after that...

“Hahahaha! Hahahahaha! Finally! Finally! I’ve been rewarded!”

I had no intention of trying to understand what exactly had existed or what he meant by being rewarded, but it didn’t feel particularly strange to create that plausibility for him right now. What mattered was that all of this had to feel like a dream, an illusion, a hallucination. I couldn’t give him too much information, and I couldn’t stay with him for too long. Even to me, it felt pretty ridiculous.

The one fortunate thing, though... was that he was more sentimental than I’d expected. Of course, I had long realized that Jung Jin-Ho had an unexpectedly emotional side, but... I also already knew that when that bastard got overwhelmed with feelings, he’d start spouting lines like something out of Shakespeare and bawl like a little kid.

‘His face is just... really... really strange.’

Looking at his face gave me chills. He looked like he was neither smiling nor crying. He rubbed his own eyes, doubting whether any of this was real. When what was in front of him didn’t disappear, the corners of his mouth began to lift. It was like he had just arrived at an amusement park.

‘Yeah, the atmosphere’s pretty good. No way this looks like reality.’

Even the routed soldiers he’d swept aside had struggled to accept what they were seeing as real. To Jung Jin-Ho, it had to have looked even more like a dream. The stench of blood stabbing at his nose was enough to make anyone’s head go hazy.

Even without the smell of blood, something this pungent would dull a person’s senses, and a superhuman whose senses were hundreds of times sharper than others would suffer more than an ordinary human being would. He ought to be blocking his sense of smell, but instead, he kept breathing in and out without hesitation, and on top of that...

‘What the hell? That crazy bastard...’

His face was flushed red, like he was excited.

'Not only that, but... damn it... damn it...'

‘T-this lunatic...’

No, he was actually trudging this way.

‘What the hell? Why’s he coming over? What’s he trying to do?’

He was walking toward me with his weapon dropped. With wet splashing sounds, his feet stepped into the lake of blood. The way he moved looked almost like a pope walking into the middle of some religious ceremony.

He stretched out his arms like he was struggling. It wasn’t like he was acting, but it felt as if he alone was standing on a stage.

‘What the hell? Don’t come over. What are you going to do once you're here?’

“Ah... ahhh...”

‘Don’t make strange noises.’

The sight of him was so chilling that I almost found myself stepping back without thinking. Honestly, I wanted to spread my wings and fly straight into the sky right then and there, but there was no way I could do that.

Instead, I figured the right move was to spread my wings wide, as if I were welcoming him. The moment I stretched them out with force, blood sprayed everywhere with a loud splash. The wings were already soaked through, so they were hard to move. They almost cramped, but it was a necessary sacrifice for the visual effect.

Just as he took another step closer, I slowly raised a hand. It was a gesture that said it wasn’t time yet. I was worried whether that unreasonable, insane psychopath would even understand the gesture, but fortunately, I could see him slowly coming to a stop.

‘No, don’t come any closer.’

I’d roughly wrapped my face in bandages and smeared blood all over myself, but if he got a good look at my face, he would start suspecting a connection to First Ki-Young.

Of course, more than that, the biggest reason was simply that this bastard walking toward me was creepy as hell.

Whatever the reason, Jung Jin-Ho getting close wasn’t something I welcomed.

“...”

“...”

“Not yet...” I mumbled.

“Ha... haha...” Jung Jin-Ho laughed.

“It’s not time yet,” I said.

“...”

“Someday... when you stand at the end, another version of me will come to find you,” I told him.

“W-what are you...?” he asked.

‘How should I know, you lunatic?’

At times like this, wasn’t it best to just say whatever sounded right?

“I am everywhere... and nowhere... something that’s the darkest and the brightest. I take many forms, yet I have no form at all,” I said.

‘Our Holy Sword Hero would seriously go crazy for this kind of stuff.’

It was world-class nonsense even by ridiculous standards, but the guy in front of me was taking every word seriously. Naturally, I let a faint trace of holy power leak out. It was the only way to give weight to this nonsense.

Honestly, I didn’t expect it to work, but the crazy psychopath just grew even more serious at the sight of holy power. The look on his face as he stared at me like he couldn’t believe it was a sight to behold. He was even trembling.

“Please remember that I—that we—are watching over you,” I said.

‘This is where the conversation has to end.’

Any more contact wasn’t exactly welcome. It would be better to disappear from his memory like a midsummer night’s dream, but it didn’t seem like Jung Jin-Ho was happy to part ways just yet.

With another splash, he stepped closer again. Since he had dropped his weapon, I didn’t have to worry about getting stabbed in the gut, but he could definitely snap my neck with his massive hands.

‘Don’t get scared, damn it.’

I had to stay firm.

“Stop,” I said.

He halted.

“...”

“...”

“You still have many things left to do...” I told him.

It was a hint that touching me meant death.

“Someday...” I said.

“Someday...” he repeated.

“...”

“Yes... someday...” I repeated again.

“...”

“...”

‘Please just get lost... Seriously, I’m begging you.’

“...”

‘It’s my last wish. For goodness sake, just disappear. You crazy psycho bastard.’

“...”

‘Hurry up and go. Seriously, why aren’t you leaving? Please just vanish, you creepy lunatic.’

[Someday, you will be rewarded.]

I had no idea how many minutes had passed since my last words, but he just stood there staring at me without moving. Of course, I didn’t pay him any attention. It was better to simply show minimal, absentminded movements, like staring off into space and occasionally shifting my wings.

I stood there as if I was saying that he wasn’t qualified yet and that I couldn't be bothered with him.

‘Please... please...’

“...”

After a while, he slowly stepped back.

‘Damn, finally.’

No more words were necessary. He still couldn’t take his eyes off me as he retreated step by step. I briefly wondered if I ought to pretend to warn him not to go back to the Brigade members, but thankfully, he didn’t seem to have any intentions of returning to them.

Right now, it looked like all he wanted was to cool down his overheated body. He looked like he would tear apart and kill anyone he ran into. Still, whether he didn’t want to kill the Brigade members or just wanted to enjoy the festival a little longer, I couldn't say for sure, but Jung Jin-Ho started moving even faster than before.

“Heh... heh... ha...”

He covered his mouth with his hand to suppress his laughter.

“Heh... heh... hahahahahaha...”

However, he burst out laughing anyway.

“Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

‘I seriously don’t even want to associate with that bastard...’

“Ha... hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

The unchained psychopath and starving-looking killer ran into the routed soldiers once again.

‘They’re the most pitiful ones here.’

I didn’t really need to look to know what would happen next, but even so, my eyes turned that way. Sure enough, he cut them down indiscriminately. He was far more savage than before. He crushed people with his bare hands, tore them apart, and scattered blood everywhere like he was showing off. For a brief moment, it almost felt like a rain of blood was falling from the sky.

“Aaaagh!”

“Fuck... fuck, what the hell is this?! AH!”

“S-spare... spare meeeeeee!”

“Heh...”

“Aaaaaaaagh!”

It looked like he was deliberately smearing blood on himself. He didn’t even care when it splashed into his mouth. Laughing loudly, he moved toward the distant battlefield. Then, he turned his head this way again, but of course, where he looked...

‘There’s nothing there.’

The grotesque temple-like structure, the boy splashing around in the lake of blood, and the scattered entrails and gore... they had all vanished as they had never existed in the first place.

Through the Telescope, I saw that he looked baffled, like he was wondering whether it had all just been a dream. It was exactly the reaction I’d wanted, enough to make me nod to myself.

He looked like he suspected that what he’d seen was something transcendent. He didn’t even bother looking back this way again or stepping closer. He’d probably only become even more certain that he had faced Death himself today.

Whatever happened to him wouldn't really matter, as the most important problem was finally dealt with.

‘At least the biggest issue has been resolved.’

He probably couldn't cool himself down with just one or two kills, so he’d probably keep playing around on the battlefield for quite a while. Jung Jin-Ho was rational, but in certain situations, he could turn into a madman no one could stop.

‘Next is...’

— Sir.

"Y-yes?"

There was no need to wait for a reply. I immediately raised the Telescope and looked toward Lee Chang-Ryeol. He was at the 4-1 Front, and not far from him...

“...”

“...”

“Hyun-Sung...” I mumbled.

I could see Kim Hyun-Sung, hood pulled low, staring out at the battlefield.