Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 508

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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508. How to Awaken from a Butterfly’s Dream (2)
A lengthy explanation followed.
The revelation that Thirteen and Headquarters had known this would all happen yet were forced to stand idle was shocking enough, as was learning that Thirteen being “Manager #13” wasn’t merely a designation but because he was literally the thirteenth manager in succession….
Yet what truly astounded me most was the fundamental truth: Headquarters, Thirteen, and the Returner were essentially the same entity.
“….”
[System Alert: …. ϲ( ´•ϲ̲̃ ̲̃•` )ɔ]
“…? Why, what?”
[System Alert: The System is slightly flustered by the Chosen Regressor’s composed reaction! (⊙⊙;)/]
“What? No, I’m actually quite shocked right now.”
Shocked, I was.
It simply fell within my expectations.
[System Alert: You anticipated this?]
[System Alert: That I’m another branching point of the One Who Returns!?]
[System Alert: Σ(O□O)!!]
“I mentioned it before—the Oedipal narrative structure. ‘It turns out the culprit was me all along.’ …Though I suppose your situation differs somewhat from that, but regardless.”
[System Alert: ….]
“What do you think I was doing while repeating September 15th roughly a hundred times?”
While trapped infinitely on September 15th, all I could do was think.
Those ‘thoughts’ encompassed every conceivable possibility—from to .
I’d heard the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—until my ears ached from attending church, so a fantasy setting of this magnitude was nothing.
“So? I understand the Returner went mad over hundreds of millions, thousands of years, and you’re the state of his existence before that madness. I grasp that what I called Headquarters is something like your… original body. I understand the current situation is the Returner’s final death throes, and that you couldn’t stop it. That you couldn’t tell me—fine, I’ll forgive that. So what?”
I snapped my fingers to relight the extinguished lamp, then crossed my arms. Darkness simply wasn’t to my taste in any regard.
“Whatever settings existed in the past, whatever happened—that’s not my concern. I understand you couldn’t inform me, and I’ve made peace with it. So what now?”
But whatever the past’s settings were, that wasn’t my problem.
“So what am I supposed to do from here on?”
What mattered to me now was how to escape this damned September 15th, and whether I could return to being Kang Ha-jin of Kairos.
[System Alert: First, I shall brief you on the current situation.]
With the sound of pages turning, the slide shifted once more.
[System Alert: I mentioned previously that something called ‘temporal energy’ exists, did I not?]
[System Alert: While the One Who Returns used the Chosen Regressor to rewind the timeline, he accumulated vast amounts of temporal energy.]
[System Alert: Ordinarily, such residual energy is deleted the moment it accumulates….]
[System Alert: But the One Who Returns couldn’t discard it, as he planned to use those remnants to become human.]
The slide displayed diagrams clearly explaining the definition of temporal energy and the methods the Returner employed to utilize and accumulate it.
I understood those diagrams in my own way, then shrugged and answered.
“So it’s basically like internet cache accumulating? As cache builds up, storage capacity grows, but data accumulates proportionally.”
[System Alert: Internet ca….]
[System Alert: The System marvels at the Chosen Regressor’s brilliant analogy. (How could temporal energy be compared to mere cache…! (ι´Д｀)ﾉ)]
“Right. I appreciate how transparent your true feelings remain.”
[System Alert: Unable to refute, the System feels vexed. (◞‸◟；)]
My perfectly apt comparison left Kim Thirteen momentarily dejected. Whatever he thought privately, I intended to understand it that way regardless, so it made no difference.
The slide advanced once more. On the new slide hung a single photograph, standing alone.
[System Notification: December 31st, 11:59 PM.]
[System Notification: In other words, the exact moment when the Chosen Regressor’s personality completely vanished.]
It was a photograph from that day—my final memory as Kairos Kang Ha-jin, which I had seen earlier.
A picture of the seven of us, smiling brightly toward the fan section filled with the light of glow sticks after we finished our performance on stage.
[System Notification: The One Who Returns detonated himself.]
[System Notification: More precisely… he deliberately burst all the temporal energy he possessed.]
“…What happens if he detonates that?”
[System Notification: Everything that exists contains temporal energy equivalent to the time it has lived through. And the One Who Returns has existed across almost all timelines.]
“….”
[System Notification: Every single timeline that existed ruptured. All at once, in a single moment.]
This bastard Dol-ja… he’s far more insane than I ever imagined.
“He’s completely mad?”
[System Notification: I concur with that assessment.]
I recalled the sight of timelines that Thirteen had shown me before—an incomprehensible sea of stars.
From the very beginning of humanity’s existence until now.
Upon hearing the explanation that all those timelines had simultaneously exploded like bombs, it felt miraculous that I was still alive and enduring even on a single day—September 15th.
I just wanted to be an idol. No matter how I thought about it, that shining bastard Dan Ha-ru had definitely dragged me into something extraordinarily serious.
[System Notification: Well, but there’s no need to worry too much.]
[System Notification: The moment the One Who Returns acted, it was classified as an official threat to the timelines, and it became something the Time Management Authority could handle.]
[System Notification: We began responding the instant the One Who Returns ruptured the timelines, and thanks to that, the current situation is not so hopeless. We’ve also managed to contain much of it.]
“What falls under the category of ‘hopeless situation’ here?”
[System Notification: At the very least, you won’t need to risk your life saving the entire universe and world! ദ്ദി・ᴗ・)✧]
“Yeah, that’s a relief.”
At least we’ve avoided a complete genre shift.
So now I just need to escape this cursed #time loop somehow.
For a while, I won’t even look at movies, dramas, or novels with keywords like infinite regression attached to them.
[System Notification: The One Who Returns used temporal energy to rupture the timelines, but the act of ‘rupturing timelines’ itself releases massive amounts of temporal energy.]
[System Notification: We used that very energy to counteract the One Who Returns’ plan.]
[System Notification: However….]
“…However?”
[System Notification: The moment January 1st struck 12:00 AM, another massive surge of temporal energy was released.]
“….”
[System Notification: It was the event of the Chosen Regressor’s personality disappearance.]
The moment Dan Ha-ru’s Regressor personality completely vanished.
Dan Ha-ru’s temporal energy—accumulated across countless years, though not as much as Dol-ja’s—burst forth as well, and that truly mad bastard Dol-ja didn’t miss the opportunity.
[System Notification: The One Who Returns used that temporal energy to scramble the timelines at will. Then he hid himself within them.]
[System Notification: Regarding this, there are several points that could be considered fortunate or unfortunate, but which would you like to hear first?]
Thirteen suddenly offered me a choice as I listened to the explanation seriously.
I answered without much hesitation.
“Let me start with what’s fortunately the case.”
[System Notification: Because the Chosen Regressor overexerted his energy, he can only manipulate timelines connected to the Chosen Regressor himself. The scale is drastically smaller than when he burst the entire universe!]
“And what’s unfortunately the case?”
[System Notification: The problem is that the Chosen Regressor happened to be an extremely successful idol at that time, so the range of entangled timelines is… quite extensive…?]
The moment I heard that many timelines were entangled, a conversation I’d had with Headquarters flashed through my mind.
That conversation from right after I discovered the Chosen Regressor was Dan Ha-ru.
【☆SUPER STAR☆! ☆～（ゝ。∂）】
[We need events that will intensely intertwine Dan Ha-ru’s timeline with as many people’s timelines as possible.]
[It’s like driving a nail through tangled threads. Even if someone pulls on one thread, it won’t come loose—it’ll be dragged along with the others.]
[So that Dan Ha-ru’s timeline doesn’t deviate from its orbit and become isolated.]
“…Ha!”
Everything I’d desperately done to keep Dan Ha-ru anchored to this life was now being used as a hideout for that bastard Dol-ja.
The irony was so absurd that a hollow laugh escaped me.
“Played right into his hands, didn’t I?”
And of course, this couldn’t possibly be a mere ‘coincidence’ that would let me sleep easy.
Without realizing it, I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth ached.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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