Troublemaker ⅠⅠ
Thanks to the Saintess, I was able to pinpoint the location of OldManGoryeo.
I would like to write that I immediately moved to defeat OldManGoryeo, but in reality, it took a bit more time.
A regressor's schedule is as tight as that of an A-list actor who just started being hailed as a national treasure.
No matter how dastardly OldManGoryeo was, I had much more urgent matters at hand. I had to upload the 'Aura Demonstration Video (Advanced)' under an alt-account on SG Net, reorganize the Korean Awakeners' Federation, tour famous eateries in Busan, and prepare for the meteor shower, among other things...
It's no joke. My calendar was jam-packed until the seventh year, if we counted from the regressor starting point.
It was nearly fifteen days later when I eventually managed to find some time to meet with iJoinedToday, and even that was a tight squeeze into into my schedule.
I had the Saintess—or more precisely, the Constellation she was enacting, 'The Saintess of National Salvation'—arrange the meeting place and time.
When I arrived at our designated location, there stood a muscular young man with broad shoulders.
“Mr. iJoinedToday?”
“Oh, ah, are you Mr. ZERO_SUGAR?”
“Yes. Nice to meet you. Please feel free to call me Undertaker.”
“Pleased to meet you. I am Lee Ju-ho.”
We shook hands.
A strong grip. I could feel the all-muscle, no-fat physique of someone who forged their path through this harsh world.
As an aside, I personally believe that one can tell more about a person from their hands than their face.
“Are you perhaps a teacher by any chance?” I asked, sneaking a glance over his shoulder.
“Ah—” Lee Ju-ho laughed awkwardly.
Our meeting place was an elementary school playground. Though the more accurate description would be a split-in-half elementary school.
Peekaboo.
Tiny children were stealthily keeping tabs on us. If a used car dealer had seen the junk those kids were playing spy in, they would have already issued a junkyard disposal for the whole pile. When our eyes met, they scurried off to hide like squirrels.
How adorable.
Lee Ju-ho scratched his head. “Yes, well... These elementary students are currently under my care.”
“How commendable, especially in these times. May I call you a teacher?”
“Oh, no need for formalities. Please, just call me however you see fit. I wasn’t originally a teacher.”
Lee Ju-ho gave a wry smile.
“I was just a math tutor getting paid at a tutoring academy... Somehow, there wasn’t anyone left to take up the podium. In the mornings, I finish guild tasks, and in the afternoon I juggle teaching. Another member takes care of being the nurse and art teacher, as well as managing the library.”
“Oh...”
Let me just say that by this point, my fondness for Lee Ju-ho had already surpassed Lv. 5.
What was this young man? An angel?
“Ah. By the way, Mr. ZERO_SUGAR, sir, it must have been hard traveling in this hot weather. Would you like something to drink...?” Lee Ju-ho complemented his statement by offering a ZERO Coke beverage.
Since the Gate incident, that sort of commercial product had been elevated to a precious treat. Yet he had deliberately prepared a zero-calorie drink for me, probably because my ID was ‘ZERO_SUGAR’.
“Oh...”
Fondness Lv. 6: surpassed.
“What a thought... But I would never refuse. I’ll gladly drink it.”
“Haha, I’m glad. I thought you’d like it.”
“Indeed. It's even more of a treat since it’s been a while. And I apologize for being late to say this, but I offer my condolences.”
“Thank you.”
We then sat side by side on a bench in the half-destroyed elementary school playground.
Once again, the young man’s name was Lee Ju-ho.
He was active around Pocheon-Cheorwon. We happened to be meeting in Pocheon as well.
The guild to which Lee Ju-ho belonged could not compare to AAA-class guilds like Samcheon or Baekhwa, but it was solid in its own right. However, as I recall, it was one of those mid-size guilds that later mysteriously disappeared. In this day and age, his guild wasn’t the only one.
“So, Mr. Undertaker...”
After some initial chitchat, Lee Ju-ho looked at me.
“You mentioned that you had information about OldManGoryeo.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Lee Ju-ho’s black eyes darkened, a burning anger for the father he loved. He licked his lips, then asked, “Will you help me kill that bastard?”
Hmm.
I set down the aluminum can. “Whether to kill him is your decision, Mr. Lee Ju-ho. My role is to guide you to your destination.”
“By destination, you mean...?”
“Of course, the place where OldManGoryeo lives.”
Lee Ju-ho’s eyes widened. “You know where that bastard lives?!”
“Yes.”
“How on earth— Ah. Perhaps...?”
The words Lee Ju-ho swallowed must have been asking if I was an acquaintance of OldManGoryeo.
“Do not worry," I assured, shaking my head. "I have never even met the man, let alone made his acquaintance.”
“Ah.”
Though it would later turn out that I had inadvertently lied.
“Forgive me. I didn’t mean to doubt you, ZERO_SUGAR, sir. But how did you manage to locate him...?”
That was, of course, thanks to the Saintess and her clairvoyant ability. If you keep listening to my story, you’ll gradually realize that the Saintess is truly a cheat-level Awakener.
“I cannot tell you, but let me hint that it was thanks to my awakening ability and the Constellation I personally serve.”
“Ah...”
“Will you follow me?”
As I stood from the bench, Lee Ju-ho also got to his feet, albeit hesitantly. He reflexively looked towards the direction of the abandoned school, where the children were hiding.
“Ah, um, I didn’t know it would come to this... I didn’t settle things before coming. I have guild tasks and school tasks to handle. I’m really sorry, but could you possibly wait just a little longer?”
“No, there’s no need for that.”
“No?”
I smiled brightly. “It’s not far at all from here.”
I had specifically adjusted my busy regressor-schedule to give myself some leeway in intervening in this case.
“If it’s close, how close is it?”
“Pocheon. Mr. Lee Ju-ho, you and OldManGoryeo are actually from the same neighborhood.”
Lee Ju-ho went silent as his jaw dropped.
Why hide it?
This case was a simple quest that could be solved with just one proper attempt.
[Turn right into the alley.]
[Then it's left into the next alley.]
[Keep going straight.]
The performance of the 'Saintess', a limited edition navigation product that I alone could use in the whole world, allowed me to find my way even with my eyes closed.
“......”
Meanwhile, Lee Ju-ho, who was following me, never stopped expressing his open confusion.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
“Ah, yes. It's just... This information was so unexpected...”
He was understandably shocked.
Connecting to SG Net meant OldManGoryeo was also an Awakener. And though Pocheon was not a major city, all the Awakeners there would know each other.
“Oh! Team Leader Ju-ho!”
Sure enough, as we walked down the street, village patrol members who recognized Lee Ju-ho approached us.
Nowadays, a patrol team was a must-have in every village. In keeping with the latest trends, the patrol members looked at me, a stranger, with particular suspicion.
“Excuse me, but what brings you to this neighborhood?”
Lee Ju-ho stepped forward. “Oh, about that... Just taking a walk with an old hometown friend.”
“Your hometown friend? Wow. Friendships like that are rare these days.” The patrol member opened the road barrier. “Well, if he’s an associate of Team Leader Ju-ho, it should be fine. Please go ahead.”
After we passed through the security checkpoint, the streets became noticeably tidier. This must be the affluent area of Pocheon, akin to Gangnam Cheongdam-dong. Although, the original Cheongdam-dong had been turned into ruins.
“Excuse me, Mr. ZERO_SUGAR, sir. Is this really the place?” Lee Ju-ho's voice, which had already been hesitant before we entered this neighborhood, began to tremble even more.
“Why? Are you feeling uneasy?”
“To be honest... Yes. This area is primarily where our guild's Awakeners live. There isn’t a single member from another guild here.”
“Is that so? Then you should brace yourself.”
“......”
Frankly, whether Lee Ju-ho was prepared or not didn’t matter much to me. After all, I had come all this way just to see how impressively the facial muscles of OldManGoryeo could be re-arranged.
Unlike Lee Ju-ho, I didn't particularly intend to kill OldManGoryeo. A good beating and a warning to 'never troll on the internet again' would suffice.
“This is the place.”
We soon arrived in front of a house. Red bricks. A small front yard. It wasn’t particularly luxurious, but living in a detached house rather than a communal residence in these times was a sign of privileged status.
Lee Ju-ho's eyes flickered over the building restlessly. It seemed it was indeed the house of an acquaintance.
“Good heavens.”
“This is the location given by my Constellation. You know of her, The Saintess of National Salvation, right? Among the Constellations, she is the most trustworthy. Let’s go take a look at his face now.”
“ZERO_SUGAR, sir, just a moment...!”
Lee Ju-ho tried to grab my shoulder, but by then, I had already stormed into the mansion.
Fitting for an Awakener’s hideout, the mansion was equipped with various security devices. However, I infiltrated them as easily as a summer mosquito.
Why? Because I, the regressor, was the very person who initially proposed and implemented these security designs.
Passwords? Traps? Puppeteer’s special spider webs? They all crumbled before me, the copyright holder, in less than a second.
“No, what―”
The sound of Lee Ju-ho's astonishment echoed behind me, but I ignored it. These kinds of infiltration operations needed to be quick and decisive, and once initiated, it was best to see them through without looking back.
If this were a game, my profile would probably read [First Profession: Regressor], [Second Profession: Assassin (Thief)].
I reached the heart of OldManGoryeo’s hideout in an instant.
“Heh... Here's blue, heehee...”
OldManGoryeo was busy painting on a canvas, so completely absorbed in his art, that he hadn’t noticed my intrusion at all.
Only once I stepped up right behind him did his ears finally twitch to attention.
“Huh? Who...?”
A critical hit to the nape. With an optional aura boost.
“Eeek.”
Thump.
A woman in a white doctor’s coat went limp. Steering her clear of the paint cans so that she crumbled to the floor was my final act of consideration.
OldManGoryeo was, in fact, a woman.
Target secured, mission accomplished.
That was easy.
“Hmm?”
The real problem started then.
Knocking OldManGoryeo out was fine, but taking in her face came with a surprise.
What in the world―
“Surely not...?”
OldManGoryeo, who was now lying on the floor with dancing eyes, was one of the 399 survivors who had been summoned to the Busan Station concourse.
‘What a coincidence.’
Given that 399 isn't an especially small number, such a coincidence was certainly statistically possible. However, the real surprise lay in the fact that OldManGoryeo was not just familiar to me, but to all of you readers from a .
Our fiery SG-man, Seo Gyu, who was prettily decapitated by the Tutorial Fairy, remember?
"Hieeeeeek!"
There was someone who was drenched in Seo Gyu’s blood back then.
"P-people— People have died...! People have—! Aiiieee, he just died!"
Someone who, while running away, scattered Seo Gyu’s innards and blood across the Busan Station main concourse, causing a scene reminiscent of Moses parting the Red Sea (though with a bit more crimson).
That person was Sim Ah-ryeon.
‘...Why is she here?’
Isn’t the world unexpectedly small?
Footnotes:
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