Prophet III
From the day I came out as a regressor, my relationship with Oh Dok-seo rapidly improved.
I also became more comfortable because I stopped pretending to be an insufferable cool guy (which was fun but ridiculous), and Oh Dok-seo, no longer needing to guard against a ticking time bomb psychopath who could snap at any moment, also felt more at ease.
“Kid, let's go.”
“Hmm? Where all of a sudden?”
“Gangnam.”
A little later, I went out to Seoul with Oh Dok-seo, just the two of us.
Originally, there were few parks south of the Han River, making the neighborhood a rather poor place for walks. However, since the residents had relocated to the afterlife, it had become quite pleasant.
-G҉rr҉҉k҉?
Ten Legs stood dumbfounded amidst the empty, abandoned buildings. Even after the residents disappeared, it remained like a true caretaker guarding the apartments.
-G҉҉rr҉r҉҉҉҉r҉!
In the eyes of this caretaker, we must have looked suspicious. It immediately lashed out its tentacles, charging toward us. Given how suspicious the times had become, this excessive response was inevitable.
In fact, its judgment wasn't wrong. What else could one call someone who had gone through hundreds of regressions and a person who had read this world like a novel, other than suspicious?
Oh Dok-seo screamed, “Eek!” and hid behind me.
“Are you crazy? That’s Ten Legs! You need to gather every Awakener in Korea to deal with it, so why are you alone...?!”
“Secret Technique, Octopus Sashimi.”
I swung my sword.
Ten Legs was difficult to subjugate due to its terrifying regenerative powers. No matter how many tentacles were cut, they quickly grew back. The condition that both hearts had to be destroyed simultaneously wasn't easy either.
In other words, from the moment I mastered sashimi cuts faster than its regeneration, Ten Legs was nothing more than live octopus on a chopping board.
After my half-dozen strikes, both Ten Legs and the abandoned buildings around it collapsed. Its screams were buried beneath the rumble of falling structures.
When all the buildings had fallen, everything became quiet.
“Oh…”
Oh Dok-seo mumbled blankly.
“What, is it over? Is that really it?”
“Yeah, the final boss you talked about is dead, so now the world is at peace. Go celebrate.”
“Damn… You really got strong, huh?”
Oh Dok-seo looked back at me with a hint of admiration.
“But even with that power, you can't stop the apocalypse?”
“I can’t. Ten Legs is only strong in terms of regeneration. It doesn't have annoying traits like immunity to physical attacks or magical attacks. It's really the weakest.”
“No way…”
Oh Dok-seo's expression hardened.
While she had already believed me, this incident made her completely trust me.
Oh Dok-seo disbanded the party she had carefully nurtured. It seemed unnecessary, but she was firm.
“No matter how much power I gather, I wouldn't have been able to fight Ten Legs, but you destroyed it on your own. My party is meaningless then, right? I should switch strategies to support you as much as possible.”
Whether Oh Dok-seo's judgment was right or wrong was a secondary matter, but thanks to her, I found a good reason to part ways with Go Yuri.
Upon hearing the party disbandment order, Go Yuri looked incredibly disappointed (at least, that’s how it seemed to me).
“I wanted to be with you and Undertaker… Do we really have to part like this?”
“Oh, Yuri unnie could still… Khaaak!”
I pinched Oh Dok-seo’s arm as she was about to mutter something strange. I had repeatedly explained to her how scary Go Yuri was when alone, but when the time to break up finally arrived, she got brainwashed all over again.
Only then did Oh Dok-seo snap out of it with a “Huh.”
“So-sorry! Yuri unnie! I’ve agreed to become his disciple for a while! This old man insists on only taking one disciple, so I won’t be able to go with you!”
“Hmm.”
Oh Dok-seo bowed her head deeply as if she felt truly sorry.
Go Yuri calmly studied her. Then she turned to look at me. Was I overreacting to think I glimpsed the shadow of red flesh in her bright red eyes?
“It can't be helped. The master-disciple relationship is as important as that of parent and child. It's not something outsiders should interfere with.”
Go Yuri spoke in a way that appealed to me while staring directly at my face without a single twitch.
“I’ll take my leave then.”
“Are you really…?”
“Yes, even if we part now, I feel like our connection won't be severed. We’ll surely meet again someday. Despite the state of the world, I hope you both find happiness.”
Go Yuri took two steps back and bowed gracefully like a noblewoman. Then, without adding another word, she walked down the hill alone.
Soon, her figure disappeared down the slope.
“Hwaaaa—”
Oh Dok-seo slumped, her whole body melting as the tension left her. Even her cap, which was practically her main body, slid halfway off.
“So, you were telling the truth… What the hell was that? I didn’t think much before we talked, but afterward, I suddenly thought, ‘Why am I being so cold to Yuri unnie?’”
“She’s always like that, but it's a relief she acknowledged the importance of a master-disciple relationship.”
“Hmm? What are you saying? She told me that even if it's a master-disciple relationship, it's dangerous for a man and woman to wander around alone together and that I should be careful.”
“…?”
“…?”
We looked at each other, then quickly turned our heads to the hill Go Yuri had descended. Since we saw her going down, she should have been climbing up the opposite slope by now.
Cicadas chirped.
No matter how long we waited, Go Yuri's figure didn't appear.
We wandered through the crumbling world.
I didn't want to describe that collapse in detail. Some astute readers might have already noticed that I intentionally avoided such descriptions.
Thanks to the Saintess's efforts, South Korea was relatively secure. However, her reach only extended to the Awakeners. She couldn't control the majority of ordinary people.
Looting, arson, violence… People who had lost their loved ones to violence filled the emptiness by adopting abandoned pets. Political factions became military fiefdoms, and the military became political. The fingers of the impoverished, the first carrier of an unprecedented epidemic—misfortune piled up endlessly.
I only handled the misfortunes I could manage.
Unbearable misfortunes were transferred to others’ hearts. I'm not playing the regressor just to spread epidemics.
“One of the novels I read… The one where you’re the main character, Omniscient Regressor's Viewpoint, had just about 30 chapters released.”
One day, Oh Dok-seo said this while casually wiping what looked like blood from her face. Actually, it wasn't blood but a petal from the red-flowered Udumbara, a parasitic organism of a vicious epidemic. There will be an opportunity to mention this in detail in the next episode.
“Thirty chapters?”
“Yeah. I never read any novel shorter than that, no matter how interesting it looks. You never know when an author might stop writing. I think I started reading it maybe two or three days before the Seoul Gate broke?”
Oh Dok-seo was similar to me in nature. We often talked more about our hobbies than about misfortune.
“Where did you find that novel?”
“Just from my usual web novel platform. I noticed it was already favorited. It’s like adding something to your bookmarks.”
“…So there's an author writing Omniscient Regressor's Viewpoint?”
“I don’t know about that.”
Oh Dok-seo chewed her gum.
“To be honest, I don’t remember adding it, but my favorites list easily exceeds 200, so I just thought I’d forgotten about it. But now that I think about it, maybe it was favorited without me knowing… Ah.”
While walking through Onyang, a large stray dog approached us. Oh Dok-seo embraced it.
Our two-person party had gained a new member.
“I think it's your ability.”
“Ability?”
A few days later, as we secretly stocked up on dog food in a department store taken over by a guild (luckily, the pet corner had little security), I spoke.
“There’s someone named Seo Gyu. His ability is creating and running an online community. Since Awakeners' abilities vary widely, it's not strange if yours manifests in the form of ‘reading novels.’”
“But my ability was already revealed as Shield Generation.”
“You're a multi-ability user.”
“Huh? Really? Isn't that super rare?”
“It is rare. But in life, you realize that a 1% chance isn't as unlikely as it seems.”
“Oh, I see… Hmm. So I actually have another ability that takes the form of reading novels…”
“For convenience, I’ve named it Publication Demanding.”
“Publication Demanding…”
Woof, Darkness (the dog's name) barked. Its sound resonated through the darkened department store.
“Oh, shush!” Oh Dok-seo tried to quiet it, but we had already been noticed by a patroller.
“Oh no, danger…”
“Let's run.”
Wiping out the guild occupying the department store would've been easy, but they would later become a valuable ally in fighting for humanity. We quickly fled. Woof! Woof! Darkness, cradled in Oh Dok-seo's arms, barked happily.
“Isn't my ability more like Prophecy than Publication Demanding?”
A few months later, on the way back from a guild coalition meeting, Oh Dok-seo asked me.
“Prophecy?”
“Yeah, knowing your life story is practically the same as foretelling the future. You know how prophets in novels see the future as vivid images like in movies? In my case, it's manifested in the form of web novels, which I'm most familiar with. Doesn't that make sense?”
“Hmm.”
That certainly made sense.
But if Oh Dok-seo's ability was prophecy, there remained some unanswered questions.
“Then why was there no sign of anything strange until the 555th cycle?”
“Hmm?”
“You wouldn’t know, Dok-seo, but from my perspective, this cycle is highly unusual. In your terms, it's like an extra character suddenly awakened to the [Prophecy] ability.”
“Your tone’s a bit off, but still, it’s strange.”
Oh Dok-seo stroked her chin.
“Maybe it’s just that 555 is a special number. It's my name after all.”
“Regressions aren’t a numbers game. That can’t be the reason.”
“Hmm. What could it be, really? Why didn’t I approach you until the 555th cycle…?”
Oh Dok-seo tilted her head.
Our questions were finally answered on a day both distant and near.
When the 555th cycle ended in failure and became the 556th.
[Oh Dok-seo: Wow. Busan Station waiting room. I read this in the novel! Soon, the Tutorial Fairy will appear and blow the head off that man who says ‘You fucking asshole’... huh? Huh?! Why’s the protagonist suddenly coming toward me?]
This time, I approached Oh Dok-seo first. Of course, this was to completely block Go Yuri from interfering.
The unexpected event startled Oh Dok-seo. But just like in the previous cycle, she quickly trusted me after seeing how easily I cut down Ten Legs.
He also revealed something surprising.
“But old man, is it okay for you to be hanging out with me like this?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“That, um… what’s his name… Schopenhauer? Anyway, shouldn’t you team up with that Swordmaster old man?”
My eyes widened.
“You know Old Man Scho? How?”
“Yeah? Of course. He’s in the novel.”
In the previous cycle, Oh Dok-seo hadn’t mentioned Old Man Scho. Though I had told her there was another regressor, it was just a side story for her, having only read up to the fourth cycle in the novel.
I met Old Man Scho for the first time in the sixth cycle.
Yet now, Oh Dok-seo brought him up first.
This was clear evidence.
‘The novel that Oh Dok-seo read… had more chapters?’
I looked at her intently.
“Dok-seo, how many chapters were released in Omniscient Regressor’s Viewpoint that you read?”
“Oh? Uh, maybe… 32? 33? Something like that.”
“…!”
That confirmed it.
As the cycles progressed, the ‘novel’ that Oh Dok-seo read gained more chapters. While it had only reached up to 30 chapters in the previous cycle, this time, at least two more had been added.
The standard for this ‘increasing serialization’ was as arbitrary as a peddler's whim.
Sometimes, a single chapter would be added over 60 cycles, while other times, two chapters were added after only one. It was completely random.
Further exploration was needed to determine the exact criteria for adding chapters.
But there was one thing I was sure of.
‘This child is following my life’s track.’
A shiver ran through me.
With a slightly slower step.
At a pace slightly behind mine.
But at a consistent speed, Oh Dok-seo was following me.
Before reaching 30 chapters, Oh Dok-seo wouldn’t have read the novel. She had said she never read novels shorter than that.
So she only read the novel for the ‘first time’ when it reached 30 chapters. That was during the 555th cycle.
Oh Dok-seo’s guess was right. Her ability was [Prophecy].
She just hadn’t realized it and wasted it through 555 cycles.
‘But it’s not a perfect prophecy.’
According to Greek mythology, the god and prophet Prometheus had a younger brother.
Epimetheus.
Unlike Prometheus, whose name meant ‘forethought,’ his brother Epimetheus meant ‘afterthought.’ The brothers became the origins of ‘prologue’ and ‘epilogue.’
Oh Dok-seo was Epimetheus, who had awakened to the prophecy.
Her prophecy wasn’t quick. She was slower than any other prophet, following the tracks I had set long before, with a time lag of about 5,000 years.
Yet, despite this, Oh Dok-seo was steadily following my every step.
When I crossed the 555th cycle, she reached her fifth.
When I crossed the 560th cycle, she would be at her eleventh.
‘So someday—really far in the future, Oh Dok-seo will also reach the 555th cycle, won’t she?’
That the story wasn’t fiction.
That what seemed like tales from another world were actually stories from her own.
That she would meet me, the protagonist, travel the world with me, deal with warlords, and adopt a dog.
All this would someday be serialized in Oh Dok-seo’s novel, and she would read it.
I realized this future and trembled slightly. It felt like a ray of light had pierced the world, where destruction seemed inevitable.
“…Old man, what’s going on?”
Oh Dok-seo tilted her head at my reaction.
Suddenly, my right forearm itched.
Dang Seo-rin's last words echoed in my head.
-You have dreams similar to mine.
-You’re also moving forward, repairing the tracks in this broken world. The tracks the Ten Legs destroyed, the broken lines that other monsters shattered. If we keep fixing it step by step, the tracks will eventually connect from station to station.
-Others can walk along those tracks too.
Yes, in the end, Dang Seo-rin was right.
What she had muttered then was just a hope, and I had accepted her last words because I shared that same hope.
But now, after more than 5,000 years had passed, reality had finally caught up to our hopes.
‘In that case.’
I held the trembling in my heart.
‘I’ll wait for this child to catch up to me.’
Until when? Until Oh Dok-seo arrives at the station named the 555th cycle.
That cycle was like Pandora’s box. When Oh Dok-seo realizes that the ‘novel’ she read is actually the tracks laid out in reality, this world will fundamentally change.
As a regressor, a new joy of waiting had been added to my life.
So, I waited.
The 556th cycle ended.
The 557th cycle ended.
“Hey! Old man! You can’t abandon Old Man Scho like that!”
Oh Dok-seo shouted when we reached the 581st cycle.
She must have read the latest chapters where Old Man Scho had left on an indefinite ‘vacation.’
I smirked.
“Who did I abandon?”
Nothing could have been more unfair. I abandon Old Man Scho? He abandoned me. And I never once gave up on him.
It's confusing the sequence of events, the perpetrator and the victim.
But interpreting and commenting on a novel is always up to the reader.
As new chapters were added and the cycles progressed, Oh Dok-seo kept leaving me ‘comments.’
“Wow. How do you take down the Udumbara boss?”
“No way! All the Constellations were lying?”
“Community-building ability? What kind of trash ability is that…”
“Sim Ah-ryeon is a complete troll… I could never get along with someone like that.”
“Online game weirdness? Wow, seriously. There was such a gimmick? It was never mentioned in the original.”
“…? What’s up with Go Yuri? Is she even human? Isn’t she a monster?”
Like a reader leaving comments for the author, Oh Dok-seo screamed and complained.
Not that I was the author or anything.
But I generously accepted her comments. Even if I was still childish at over 5,000 years old, at least I knew how to let others step within my boundaries.
‘Keep following, Dok-seo.’
Hurry up.
You may be slower than me, but your steps are quicker than anyone else's.
Tread my failures, my guidebooks, and my life story.
Though my life was originally for others, it’s now also for you.
Of course, not all this waiting was fun.
Finally, Oh Dok-seo read up to the 52nd cycle, when I founded the Sixth International Convenience Store with the Fairies.
From then on, the way she looked at me fundamentally changed.
“Old man.”
“What is it?”
“You know, you’re a total psycho.”
“……”
“And could you cut down on the SG Net talk? And take it easy on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”
“Dok-seo, I have my reasons for bringing up the Three Kingdoms threads. If I don’t, a certain anomaly…”
“Enough. The way you talk doesn’t match your age. Or maybe it does? How old are you, anyway?”
“……”
I invoked my right to remain silent and quietly drank my coffee.
There was no point trying to salvage my tarnished image when I knew better than anyone that it was beyond saving.
That’s right.
This might sound ridiculous, but sometimes, just sometimes, I missed the days when Oh Dok-seo shivered, mistaking me for a cold-hearted regressor.
That brat.
You should try growing old like me someday, brat.
Footnotes:
