Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapercomics
◈ I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell
The Mastermind XII
I was dreaming.
Surprisingly, the world in the dream was still intact.
There were no Anomalies, no Voids. South of the Han River in Seoul was not blanketed in white ash. The sky and the moon remained endlessly peaceful. I could walk through the night to a 24-hour convenience store, or head to work alone without hesitation. The sighs of yawning workers at dawn carried a quiet assurance: “The world will still be the same tomorrow.” At noon, the stiff arms of a laborer tossing a garbage bag into the back of a truck reflected hardened muscle.
My job was a bit unusual.
“Teacher, I’ve finished all the problems!”
“You’re solving them much faster now.”
In the dream, I was Cheon Yo-hwa’s private tutor.
I wasn’t merely a tutor focused on academic subjects, but a study manager fully assisting my client, Yo-hwa, in every aspect of her learning. I’d even moved from where I usually lived in Seoul, taking temporary leave from school, and was staying in Sejong City.
Some might think it absurd to go to such lengths for a single student. However, when I looked at the amount deposited into my account every month, both the dream-version of myself and the “me” watching the dream could accept it without question.
“Sunbae, is my sister’s lesson over?”
The Cheon Yo-hwa I was tutoring wasn’t just one person.
The younger twin sister: Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (千謠話).
The elder twin sister: Cheon Yo-hwa of heaven’s desolation (天寥化).
“If the lesson’s over, let’s go hang out.”
“No, it’s your turn for class now...”
“Heroes don’t study. In this modern capitalist society, my status is practically that of a hero.”
If the younger sister had a personality that spread Vitamin D-like sunshine wherever she went, the elder sister, though composed in appearance, had an unpredictable nature that made her a constant source of anxiety.
“Why do you call me ‘sunbae’ instead of ‘Teacher,’ anyway?”
“It’s simple. I’m going to enroll in your university someday, so I might as well get used to calling you sunbae in advance.”
“With your attitude, getting into our school is impossible.”
“I scored 0, 100, 0, and 100 in Korean history and the other core subjects on my last mock exam.”
“......”
“And for the exams where I got zeros, I still picked the correct answers for every question.”
It was sheer madness.
At the time, my life was mortgaged to these mirror-image twins. As the elder sister had pointed out, in a capitalist society, the person who controls your bank account effectively controls your life.
I was dreaming.
“Did you know, sunbae? Our family is actually a cult.”
One evening, beneath a night sky brightly adorned with the Milky Way, Cheon Yo-hwa murmured this to me.Nôv(el)B\\jnn
“My sister and I were destined to be possessed by gods from birth. My sister serves the god Infinite Void. I serve the god Mastermind.”
“Those are some peculiar names for gods...”
“Infinite Void signifies the absence of time. Mastermind is a god that denies and degrades the fabric of space. Our cult’s goal is to reduce all of existence—both time and space—back to nothingness.”
Perhaps because we had grown close as tutor and student, she sometimes confided secrets in me that she couldn’t share with others. It seemed she had correctly judged my discretion and trusted me not to repeat her words.
“Have you ever wondered why my sister and I share the same name? It’s not an ordinary cult. Then again, I suppose no cult is truly ordinary.”
“Do you want to escape from it?”
“I can’t.”
“......”
“My sister gets to live a relatively free life, blending in with the general public. Even the adults approve. After all, when we inherit the position of head of the family and leader of the cult, someone will need to handle external affairs. You know, like how a temple has both an abbot and a chief monk?”
“So your sister is the abbot, and you’re the chief monk?”
“Our cult isn’t limited to Sejong City, its influence stretches across the entire Korean Peninsula. This little ‘student play’ of mine won’t last long. Someday, I’ll rise to a status you can’t even imagine.”
“Ah, yes, I’ll be sure to serve you well, Chief Monk.”
“Hahaha.” Cheon Yo-hwa hugged her knees and leaned sideways to look at me. “If my sister and I ever change... If we turn strange...”
“...?”
“Promise you’ll come to help us, sunbae.”
I was dreaming.
The peaceful world crumbled in an instant.
While traveling to Busan on the KTX train, I was suddenly summoned to a tutorial dungeon.
Though I worried about the safety of those I left behind—particularly the twins—I quickly lost the luxury of such concerns. My own survival was hanging by a thread.
Fortunately, I soon discovered that mortal peril was rarely urgent for me.
I, the Undertaker, was a regressor.
The 1st cycle. The 2nd cycle. The 3rd.
Barely escaping the hellhole known as Busan Station, I was left so gravely injured that death seemed inevitable. Yet I made my way to Sejong City, dragging my battered body.
Despite the endless cycles, my concern for my cherished students never waned.
“Hmm? Who are you?”
But by then, the twins had already become “strange.”
The younger sister didn’t recognize me. Though her face and demeanor were identical, I instinctively knew the person before me was no longer my student.
It was later revealed that the younger sister had been unable to cope with the tragedy at Baekhwa Girls’ High School and had placed herself under a form of self-induced NPC-brainwashing.
“Yo-hwa, where is your sister...?”
“Oh! You must be one of my sister’s acquaintances!”
The younger sister, Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (千謠話), smiled brightly and led me to the basement of Baekhwa Girls’ High School. The students she had brainwashed stared at me with blank expressions as I followed her.
“Here we are!”
“......”
“Unnie! You have a visitor!”
There was no response.
Her elder sister had become an entirely hollow shell.
No matter how much anyone called to her, poked her arm to tease her, or tried to make her react, the girl kneeling in the center of the basement remained utterly unresponsive.
She was like a vegetative patient.
“By reducing her memories and identity—everything that has defined her since birth—into ‘false memories.’ Then, she must awaken to a new self, one forged by her own will.”
“That’s easy to say, but how could something like that even be possible...?”
“It’s possible. With my sister’s ability.”
NPC Creation. An ultimate brainwashing technique that forces the target to think and act exactly as programmed.
“She needs to start over. A new life.”
“......”
“Of course, if we change too much, my sister’s entire identity could collapse. That’s why we’ll focus on removing only the parts tied to the Outer God.”
“Do you think that kind of precision is even feasible?”
“It might be hard. Human memories are fragile, after all. There’s a chance she might also lose her memories of me, her twin sister... and even you, sunbae.” Cheon Yo-hwa paused, then conviction steeled her voice as she declared, “But if we can exorcise the Outer God from Yo-hwa’s soul, it’ll be worth the cost.”
“I don’t understand. Even memories of you might vanish. How can you be so confident in this plan when it means losing the time you’ve spent together with your sister?”
“You’re here, aren’t you, sunbae?”
I was momentarily at a loss for words. “What?”
“We’ve only known each other for a year or two, as tutor and student. Yet here you are, crossing a hundred cycles just to save us. Even if my sister forgets me, it’s okay. She’ll have far more time to build memories with you in the future.”
“......”
“And I’ll feel the same. Right now, the priority is defeating Infinite Void. But someday, when the time comes to conquer the Mastermind... At that moment...” Cheon Yo-hwa’s confident tone wavered and her words trailed off, her parted lips closing. She grew quiet.
Then, her red eyes fixed on me, her gaze unreadable.
“Why are you staring like that?”
“......”
“Is there a problem with the strategy?”
“No, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Her murmur was soft, almost inaudible. Her eyes remained fixed on me.
Somehow, I didn’t feel awkward under her gaze.
People often spoke of intense eye contact. A powerful gaze could make anyone flinch. But Cheon Yo-hwa’s eyes weren’t sharp—they were shaded, more like “eye shadows” than blinding light.
Just as a person might seek the relief of shade on a scorching summer day, her gaze brought only comfort. Almost as if she had spent her entire life preparing to be someone’s shade.
Her god, the Mastermind, was known as the “Black Veil.” Perhaps she had begun to resemble the god she served.
“Sunbae, I have one question.”
“Ask me anything.”
“You won’t give up, will you?”
There was no need to ask, “Give up on what?”
Sometimes, even when a sentence lacked its context, people could still understand each other. Gaps in speech could be filled by the shared experiences of two lives.
I could answer easily.
“I won’t give up.”
“There may be other Anomalies even stronger and more cunning than the ones we’ve faced. There may be enemies so insurmountable that no amount of struggle will overcome them.”
“......”
“Moreover, we don’t even know if it’s possible to bring those erased by Time Seal back to reality. Yet despite all that, you’ll never abandon the world, will you? You won’t let go, like the regressor who gave up before you?”
“Never,” I said, taking Cheon Yo-hwa’s hand. “No matter what happens, I won’t give up. And if the day ever comes when I do give up, it’ll only be because there’s a reason so compelling that even I can’t deny it.”
“A... A reason?”
“Yes. A reason everyone can accept. One that even I—whether it’s the me of the 1st cycle, the 100th, or any cycle—can agree with.”
“......”
“Unless such a reason exists, I will never give up.”
Cheon Yo-hwa fell silent. Then her lips parted, revealing the darkness within that spoke one word:
“Okay.”
A faint smile spread across those lips.
Even shadows, I realized, could carry thin cracks of light.
“I feel the same way, sunbae.”
On the 117th cycle, we defeated Infinite Void. One sister lost a part of her memory, including fragments of her elder sister and me.
I was dreaming.
“Sunbae.”
Yet no one despaired.
Cheon Yo-hwa’s words had been true. There were far more days ahead for us to spend together.
For humanity, this might have been a tragedy. But for the twin sisters, it was a small happiness.
Through hundreds of cycles, we occasionally spent time together. We drank coffee, marveled at the submerged Inunaki Tunnel, and grew close enough for Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (千謠話) to call her sister unnie once again.
Together, we defeated the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. We were shocked by Yu Ji-won’s inhumanity. And finally, by the 685th cycle, we had grown strong enough to confront the Mastermind.
We asked the elder Cheon Yo-hwa to conduct the ritual to summon the Outer God.
And so, time passed.
Time passed.
“Sunbae.”
I was dreaming.
“Sunbae?”
I was dreaming.
“Sunbae.”
And then.
“Yes. Thank you.”
A shadow whispered.
“I think I’m finally happy now.”
I awoke from the dream.
Footnotes:
[1] There is a fringe theory with a cult following that Adolf Hilter had monorchism, the condition of only having one testicle for one reason or another.
[2] Guo Jia is a character from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He is characterized by his skill in administrative work and as an excellent judge of character.