Chapter 132

Eschatologist IV

Let's talk about Old Man Scho.

Flashback. A distant past.

In the distant past, during the 21st cycle, there was a time when Old Man Scho and I laid out a drinking session on a sky-blue bridge and had a heartfelt conversation while drunk.

“Embalmer, what do you think will happen to the world after we die?”

“After we die?”

Old Man Scho and I were probably the only two regressors in this world.

So occasionally, we would excitedly discuss topics that "only regressors could truly immerse themselves in." Just like now.

“Well. At the moment when the two of us die... wouldn’t the world also regress as we do? Time would be rewound.”

“What if that’s not the case?”

“What?”

“What if the world continues even after we die?”

“No, that wouldn’t make sense, would it? We die and immediately wake up. How could the world maintain itself?”

“Listen carefully.”

The old regressor’s theory was this:

A. [The World After the Bad Ending] Hypothesis.

Explanation: Even if the regressor dies, the world does not regress. Time continues until the universe ends. The world is "rolled back" only after complete annihilation. The server reset. However, for some reason, the memories of Old Man Scho and I, the regressors, are preserved without being reset.

“Oh... So, subjectively, we feel like we’ve woken up right after dying, but objectively, we only open our eyes after the world has ended?”

“Yes. In this case, our ability is closer to [Memory Preservation] rather than [Regression]. Given that you, as Undertaker, have the Complete Memory ability, doesn’t it fit well?”

“Oh...”

“There’s another hypothesis.”

B. [Parallel World] Hypothesis.

Explanation: When a regressor dies, their consciousness and memories are transferred to "another parallel world." Although the new world appears identical, it is entirely separate from the one previously lived in. The differences between the two worlds are simply unobservable to the regressors.

“If the parallel world hypothesis is correct, our ability might be called [World Line Transfer].”

“I’ve never thought of it from that perspective before.”

“That’s because you walk around without any thoughts in your head, you ignorant fool. You need to learn. You call socialists communists and mock German history; you're utterly uneducated. You are disqualified as a human, as a person, and in character.”

“Hey, what is with this sneak attack?”

“I support the parallel world hypothesis.”

I blinked.

“Uh... why?”

“Because does it make sense for the entire world and time itself to regress just because two humans die?”

Old Man Scho swirled his soju glass.

“It’s much more plausible that only our consciousnesses are transferred to another world, don’t you think?”

“Hmm.”

Listening to Old Man Scho, I felt an undefined unease.

If, as Old Man Scho said, "rewinding the world's time" was absurd, then "transferring an individual's self and memories to another parallel world" seemed equally preposterous.

On the contrary, assuming countless parallel worlds existed might be more theoretically burdensome.

“Then, in the original world where we were... all the parallel worlds we've passed through must have all perished? We're just wandering through new worlds after leaving our vanished homeland.”

“Exactly! We keep retrying to save the world, but in truth, all those humans are already dead. The anomalies won.”

Looking back now, as often happens with drunken ramblings, Old Man Scho’s impassioned speech lacked consistency.

If Old Man Scho truly believed in [The World After the Bad Ending] or [Parallel World], shouldn’t he have cherished his life even more?

If it wasn’t simply about rewinding time, and countless worlds had truly faced their end, the weight of our lives would be comparable to "the entire world."

Each time we failed, another world perished.

Yet, Old Man Scho was about to take a long vacation.

Why?

Did it mean he trusted me that much? Believed that even if he gave up, I wouldn’t?

Or was his lover much more precious to him than the world burdened upon us?

Between a world and a love, was the latter ultimately heavier?

Old Man Scho staggered.

“What a damn world it is, Embalmer. I really... really don’t understand why this happened. I don’t know.”

“Ah- old man. Let’s get up. If you sleep here, you’ll catch a cold. Geez, you always do this because you trust your Heavenly Martial Body too much.”

It was as if the old man in front of me, already burdened, was straining to shoulder even more weight like a Sherpa.

It was the double stance chosen by the captain of a sinking ship.

Stance A. He couldn’t afford to fail here. If he failed, the world would end.

Stance B. But even if he failed here, it couldn’t be helped. The ship carried too much cargo for a single human to bear.

“......”

Hesitation.

Old Man Scho, who had been poised to launch an all-out assault, paused.

I clenched my fist in my mind.

Even Old Man Scho couldn’t help but hesitate in front of the brainwashing beam. Even I, who rolled to the 261st cycle, had no countermeasures and could only avoid it, so how could an old man boast so arrogantly?

“Hmm... Guild leader?”

“What? I’m busy now. Don’t talk to me.”

“But I think I should tell you this.”

Go Yuri, reduced to a human shield in my left hand, spoke hesitantly.

“As you know, I am perceived as the most ideal type of person the opponent would be most attracted to, right? So... to that old man who has met his end, who do you think I look like?”

“......”

Ah.

-Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele.

The ‘night sky’ spread around Old Man Scho.

In line with the latest trends, it was like domain expansion. Considering the old man’s age, it was a unique barrier.

Old Man Scho’s tremendous aura stretched from his toes, staining the ground and the sky. Suddenly, a night sky appeared in the ruins of the city at midday.

Killing intent surpassing sword aura.

The martial talent originally possessed by Emit Schopenhauer. The extreme of that potential.

Even in reality, during his prime, I had never witnessed such a lofty transcendental state unfolding there.

“If he were in his right mind, he wouldn’t confuse his beloved wife with me... But having fallen this far and lost his reason in this ‘end’ state, hmm. I’m in a difficult position...”

“Release your brainwashing technique!”

“Haha, guild leader. That’s passive; I can’t control it. But this is serious. It’s like seeing his beloved wife captured by a kidnapper. Ah, although I’m glad to have become friends with you.”

I immediately threw Go Yuri far, far away.

“Huh?”

Go Yuri flew like a missile. It would be great if she exploded at the end, staying true to her origins.

Naturally, the attention of the no-show anomaly shifted from me to the Yuri missile. The romanticist old man threw away the steel pipe and ran toward Go Yuri.

That was the only timing given to me.

I bolted immediately. The protagonist of an infinite regression series must never miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

-Adeleeeeeeeee!

Rumble. Crash. The city was being destroyed in real-time.

I heard Old Man Scho’s desperate cries in the distance, but I didn’t care.

Please live happily together.

-Adele.

At that moment, I sensed a presence beside me.

There was no time to look back. Slash! Something sliced through my protective aura like tofu and reached my neck.

‘Ah.’

I fell forward while still running.

My head floated up, and I barely managed to glance to the side.

Old Man Scho, who I thought I had distanced myself from, was running beside me. His hand was covered in blood.

A close-range strike. My head was severed by a single chop.

Go Yuri was captured by his side. She looked at me—or more precisely, at my head—and gave a bitter smile.

Sensation vanished. Sound and consciousness rapidly faded.

It was rather fortunate. Even if I had lived a bit longer, I would only have witnessed Old Man Scho kissing Adelyuri in a romance scene.

I wanted to at least move my mouth.

‘No, this is really too much.’

Simultaneously, I felt like I had returned to the early cycles of the regressor’s childhood.

Back then, I didn’t have to face the apocalypse alone. The most reliable dealer’s back was always in front of me.

See? Old Man Scho’s potential was indeed extraordinary.

If we could fully blossom this tremendous talent, not in a bad ending but in reality, old man. We could definitely save this “damned world”.

Thud. My consciousness fell to the bottom.

The sensation of death was not much different from a dream.

Everything faded to black.

Footnotes:

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