novelraw Chapter 1 : Chapter 1
Chapter 1 : Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Ruins
Ruins.
In a city where even the electric lights that should have driven out the starlight had died.
“Hoo.”
A man let out a deep breath.
“Finally…….”
The faint scent of blood lingered on his breath.
“It’s the end.”
Death was near.
Dying was a joy.
Because the words floating before his eyes were what he had sought for so long.
[Quest Clear]
[The connection with the Constellation has been severed.]
[You can no longer regress.]
The man suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.
He felt his body growing cold.
‘Now I can finally die properly.’
Waking up again after dying.
How many times had he repeated that process?
‘Death Regression.’
If he died, he revived.
He always opened his eyes at the same time, in the same place.
He repeated this unwanted resurrection, with no end in sight.
Because of it, the man was growing weary.
His resurrected body was new, but his mind was old; it had been long since he’d stopped crying, and he was tired of being angry.
Most of that life was comprised of irritation.
He had even gone mad, unable to bear it, but humans were such curious things.
Living because he couldn't die, he found himself adapting even to insanity.
Even the life he had thrown away with his own hands eventually returned to his embrace.
‘I was truly a pathetic guy.’
Anything was fine.
As long as he could just end this damned regression…….
‘Has that time finally come.’
At the end of that life, he saw what he had accomplished.
Corpses of monsters and humans, piled up like mountains.
Dark energies slowly rising from between the rotting flesh.
Red blood flowing sluggishly.
‘Was this life a fulfilling one?’
The man leaned against the hill of corpses and calculated his own usefulness.
There were many he couldn't save, but he had diligently carried out the work of killing and destroying.
He was satisfied that he was the only living person nearby.
‘This much is enough.’
It was, truly, a satisfaction he hadn't felt in a long time.
‘I’m probably not needed anymore.’
When all this ended, the remaining people would go on to live new lives.
Even if they lived on bearing scars, it would be a better life than being dead.
This land would return not to the ‘Constellations’, but to its original owners.
‘It wasn't perfect, though.’
Nevertheless, the ‘one thing he couldn't kill’ weighed heavily on his mind.
However, his life had been too long to hold onto lingering attachments.
His will had been broken long ago.
His past life had been nothing more than a process of wandering, searching for a place to lie down.
He decided to accept this end as a rest.
The man thought, feeling his consciousness fade away.
‘Now… I can finally… meet them…….’
As his eyes closed, the world sank into darkness.
***
Blink.
Blink.
The world flickered on and off with his eyelids.
The scene felt somehow modern, so it didn't seem like the afterlife…….
‘Aigoo. My head.’
Gathering his scattered mind, an aftereffect of resurrection, he opened his eyes after a long breath.
Soon, he spotted a familiar object.
‘A smartphone…….’
Why is this in my hand.
“Ah, Fuck.”
Irritation surged.
It would be nice if this was a 'smart' afterlife.
That was impossible, so he must have regressed again.
‘I was sure I had severed the connection with the Constellation and ended the death regression.’
Others dropped dead so easily, but I couldn't even manage that simple thing; how incompetent was I?
On the smartphone, words were written that seemed to speak for his heart.
[The Regressor Who Wants to Die]
The point of regression.
It was the title of the webtoon he was reading last.
“Ha…… damn it.”
A sigh escaped before a curse.
By the way, had he been sitting on the toilet for too long?
His legs must have lost circulation, as he felt a tingling sensation the moment he stood up.
He had thought reading a webtoon while taking a crap 10 minutes before getting off work was a pretty smart thing to do.
Wasn't it great?
Getting paid for lazing around for 10 minutes.
People said sitting for a long time caused constipation or hemorrhoids, but.
Let those trivial things happen.
I had to get paid while taking a crap, so this was a decision I had never once regretted.
Until, of all times…… that became the fixed point of his regression.
‘Right. I’m always like this.’
As he awkwardly staggered out of the bathroom on his tingling legs, the first thing he faced was a mirror.
‘The mirror…….’
The neatly trimmed beard and tidy hair.
And even the fatigue and shabbiness that such things couldn't hide.
There wasn't a single speck of longing for this familiar face.
It merely reflected the discomfort of an office worker facing another Monday.
Right.
It was Monday.
Monday again.
‘…….’
As if to scrub off that damned face, he roughly rubbed his face with cold water.
He messed up his tidy hair.
An act, like a ritual, of distancing himself one step from civilization.
Ssiik-
‘That’s me.’
After forcing a smile.
‘Time to move.’
He left the bathroom.
And as he did, he thought.
This was the 21st century.
It was before the apocalypse, a time when human civilization was still alive.
‘What time is it now?’
Depending on the shock of his death, the time he woke up after resurrection differed.
So, he checked the time, but.
[PM 07:32]
‘It’s much later than usual.’
He noticed a small anomaly.
He usually regressed around 6 PM, which meant he had been unconscious for about 1 hour and 32 minutes.
And on the toilet, at that.
It was enough to give him hemorrhoids he didn't even have.
‘I’ve wasted precious time.’
It was also a little strange.
Among his countless regressions, he had never been unconscious for this long.
However, he didn't have time to leisurely deduce the reason why.
Because the apocalypse would begin at 8 o'clock.
The beings we had called gods or demons would appear as ‘Constellations’, claim ownership of this world, and humans would be wasted like consumables in between.
‘Constellations. Beings who sit on high constellations, looking down on us.’
An apocalypse caused not by zombies or nuclear war, but by imaginary gods.
That was what would happen in 28 minutes.
‘Hmm.’
While heading out of the company, retracing the memories of his past life, he picked up his cell phone.
It was to bid farewell to his parents.
He worked in Seoul, but his parents were in Busan.
Far too far.
Back when he could still remember their faces, he had tried to do something during this short call.
He had passed on information useful for survival, or even tried to go down there himself.
But the result was the same.
No matter what he did, he couldn't save them.
He was too exhausted to extend a hand that couldn't reach.
Thus, as soon as he made the call, he spoke.
This was a farewell.
“You’re doing well, right?”
How many times had he regressed, and how long had he spent in the apocalypse.
He couldn't even recall their faces anymore.
The one thing he could guess was that he must have been a terribly unfilial son.
Because among the many photos saved on his cell phone, there wasn't a single one of his parents.
It was like this.
So, wasn't it only natural that the Korean Constellations, who valued filial piety, didn't favor him?
-Oh, yeah. What’s up this time?-
A voice presumed to be his father's came through.
Even the voice he was hearing now felt unfamiliar.
“I’m calling to say I love you.”
-What kind of nonsense is this all of a sudden?
Still, it’s nice that you called again.
A faint hint of pleasure was buried in the gruff voice.
The greater his father's pleasure, the greater his guilt.
They were people whose faces he couldn't even remember anymore, but it seemed the parent-child bond wasn't easily broken.
To think a single word could strike his heart like this.
The words ‘I’m sorry’ swirled in his mouth, but he clamped it shut.
He was a worthless son.
-Right. Good that you seem to be doing well. Want me to put your mother on?-
“Yes.”
Soon, he could hear his mother's voice.
-Yes, my son. It’s so good to at least hear your voice like this.-
“You know I’ve always respected you both, right?”
-Aigoo. Why is he being like this all of a sudden? Just come down sometimes. I’ll be waiting with a warm meal ready.-
He could read the hint of a smile in his mother's breath.
He wanted to make her happier, but he had nothing more to say.
As he was now, he didn't know what kind of people they were.
“Yes. I’ll call again.”
He ended his final farewell with a lie.
This would be the last contact.
-Okay. Stay healthy and take care.-
“Yes.”
Ttuk-
Teobeok-teobeok.
The man walked with heavy steps.
‘To think I’d come to understand a parent’s heart.’
It was something he had never thought about long ago.
Until he learned that half of that life was made of worry, and the other half of longing.
It took so long.
It took a really long time.
‘By the way… what did he mean, it’s nice that I called again.’
His parents' responses were a little different from usual, but he didn't take it deeply to heart.
***
The place he soon reached was a bustling street full of people.
‘I feel it every time I see this, but it’s truly nice.’
A place full of glittering things and overflowing with life.
Some people say the city is desolate.
But could there be another place as good as this one, where all sorts of human emotions are melded together?
That all the glittering things illuminating the night could be this enchanting…….
It was something the people from before the apocalypse would find hard to know.
Tuuk.
He stood still and looked at this street.
People and cars, all passing by quickly.
‘What was it that made me regress?’
Perhaps there had been something lacking in severing the connection with the Constellation.
‘It isn't long until I can truly die.’
He would have to figure out the missing condition as he lived.
‘To die for certain… I have to live, for now.’
The man walked.
After purchasing several good-quality kitchen knives from the shop he always visited after reviving, he chose his last supper.
He had only about 15 minutes left to enjoy the pleasures of the complete 21st century, so rather than preparing for the apocalypse, he wanted to enjoy this moment.
Rather than using his head, he chose a shop relying on a vague feeling.
Something that wouldn't take too much time.
And also, a food that would make him remember the daily life of the 21st century.
‘Chicken.’
A famous franchise chicken place.
It was a shop that caught his eye.
A place like this might not have a special taste, but it was not a bad choice in that it offered a familiar one.
Also, it was a place where a light-hearted cheer coexisted, so it seemed he could blend into the atmosphere of everyone laughing and chatting, even for just a moment.
He entered the shop without hesitation.
12 minutes remaining.
The man ordered chicken, and while waiting, he removed the packaging from the kitchen knives.
It was an apocalypse he had grown used to, but he still felt uneasy empty-handed.
But if he had even a kitchen knife like this in his hand, that alone was reassuring.
“…….”
Waiting for the food, he thought of the things he had to kill.
The good things, the happy things, the things he had wanted to meet again no matter how many times he regressed, didn't come to mind easily.
Instead, the bastards that would make his life easier if he killed them even a day sooner were naturally filling his head.
‘Do I have to do that again.’
Dying or killing.
He couldn't say there was no reward in slaughter, but most of it was tedious and hard work.
The fingertips touching the knife were naturally growing cold.
‘It’s bothersome.’
He was exhausted.
Since when was it.
After the struggle to escape from the repeating past became the most important thing in his life, pulling eccentric stunts had now become his daily routine.
An obvious life was more hateful than pain.
Boredom was engraved in his heart as a chronic illness that even regression couldn't cure.
In the midst of that, suddenly.
He knew the time was near.
It was enough even without looking at a clock.
He just knew it by instinct.
The time remaining until the apocalypse was probably 20 seconds.
“Half-and-half boneless is here.”
Along with the employee's words, the delicious-looking food was served before his eyes.
‘I won’t be able to eat leisurely.’
Thinking that, he stabbed his fork in.
Basak.
The sensation of it pushing through the chicken felt good.
It was the moment he felt the crispy batter with his fingertips, blew on it lightly, and put the first piece in his mouth.
Crash!
The sound of glass breaking came from outside.
Ppang! Ppang!
Bbiik- Bbiik- Bbiik-
Car horns and alarms, and screams.
“Kyaaaaaaak!”
They pierced his ears sharply.
People's gazes all turned in one direction.
[PM 08:00]
In that moment, inside the shop where silence had fallen.
Basasak.
Just as the sound of the man chewing the crispy chicken was heard.
Kwagwagwagwang!
With the explosion, the earth trembled and the building's electricity went out.
People crying, groaning, and staggering.
Overturned dishes and scattered chairs.
Vision that went out as if a fuse had blown.
Crunch.
The man, calm alone, chewed another piece of chicken.
“Eu. Eueo? What is this?”
Murmur-murmur.
“Is it an earthquake? Wha, what’s happening?”
“Mom. I’m scared.”
“Is this North Korea’s doing?”
“Say something that makes sense.”
“My phone’s dead too.”
“Ah, ssi. What is this, really.”
Just then, as the place was filled with whispering.
A beat later, someone realized.
“But isn't this weird?”
That even if this building had a blackout, it couldn't be this dark.
What happened to the other buildings, or the streetlights…….
“It’s dark outside the window, too.”
Just then, when only the moon, curved like lips, was shining faintly.
“Kyaaak!”
The woman who was by the window screamed and fell over.
At the same time as the spilled food stained the floor red.
Chwak!
Blood splattered onto the window.
While some ran to the window, and others clung to the opposite wall.
“You can keep the change.”
The man placed a single 50,000 won bill on the counter, and walked out holding the entire plate of chicken.
The clerk, as if having no interest in calculating the money, stared at the man’s back with a pale face.