Chapter 204 – Twisted Desires (1)

Tens, no, hundreds of thousands of soldiers lay dead here.

It would be believable to say the ground was made of corpses and the rivers of blood.

Humanity had been defeated.

All the Gates until now were mere child’s play compared to this one.

A man with massive horns and three pairs of wings stood there.

The Demon King of Demon Kings, the most powerful of all demons, stood there, looking down upon the vanquished.

“…”

The man kneeling before him was silent.

Here stood the victor and the vanquished.

Was the victor truly strong, and the vanquished weak?

The Demon King, Baal, glanced around.

He saw the countless demons slaughtered by the vanquished.

That wasn’t all.

Even the high-ranking Demon Kings had been reduced to data.

It was unbelievable.

An overwhelmingly outnumbered legion.

No, it was a force so meager it was embarrassing to even call it a legion.

How many could inflict such devastating damage against the ‘Demon King Alliance’ with so few?

No, he couldn’t have been human in the first place.

Baal murmured softly to the vanquished.

What he was saying was unknown.

At least, it wasn’t a curse upon the defeated.

It was praise, and regret.

Baal raised his sword. And he cut down the strong one.

A heart-wrenching scream echoed.

A woman was sobbing, watching as the head of the powerful foe, the Hero, fell.

Baal looked at her. His eyes were filled with remorse.

“Prepare for the next war.”

Baal moved on to prepare for the next battle. With the Hero fallen, his path to supremacy was all but complete.

The war was over.

With humanity’s defeat.

“No…”

The woman crawled toward the decapitated man.

He, who had always smiled gently and grinned playfully, now wore a stiff, cold expression.

She couldn’t accept this sight.

“This can’t be happening…”

The woman burst into tears.

She finally reached him.

It was a deep regret that she couldn’t reach him sooner, her legs having been shattered.

She placed her hand on his already cold body.

“Recovery…”

She poured her healing magic into him.

“…Recovery…”

Her mana was already depleted, but she kept using it, not caring if she passed out.

Faint, gentle streams of mana were transferred to the man several times. But he did not respond.

He, who seemed like he would get up and call her name at any moment, was now still.

Where did it all go wrong?

“Heal…”

He suffered from trauma.

“…Heal…”

He wanted to protect everyone within his sight.

“Cure…”

No, her very existence was the mistake.

“…”

If only she could have healed him time and time again, if only she could have protected him.

He wouldn’t have had to die in a place like this.

Now, she couldn’t even use her healing powers.

Her mana was completely gone.

“*Sob*…”

She once again let out a flood of tears.

She thought no more tears could fall from her dry eyes, but she was mistaken.

How much time had passed?

He, who had now been converted into someone’s experience points, could be seen turning into fragments of data.

Perhaps it was a fitting end for a fallen ruler.

She stared blankly at ‘it’, utterly devastated.

*Caw, caw!*

Crows, sensing death, began to gather one by one.

The crows pecked at and ate ‘it’, the fragments of data.

The woman, who had been watching the scene with vacant eyes, belatedly came to her senses.

She gripped the man’s broken blade with her hand. Then she slashed at the crows.

“Caaaw!”

One crow was instantly sliced apart.

“How dare you…!”

With dry eyes that no longer shed tears, she tore open the belly of another crow.

*Vwooom-!*

In that moment, she saw it.

A faint HP shield emanating from the crow’s body.

*Shunk!*

But the HP shield was torn apart by the blade she held.

In the end, the crow died instantly.

The woman, having chased away the crows flocking to the corpse, didn’t feel the pain even as blood dripped from her hand, cut by the blade.

Because she was in a state of shock far greater than any pain.

An HP shield had just manifested from the crow.

Seeing that, she had a realization.

He wasn’t dead.

He was still here.

She picked up the data of ‘it’. And then pushed it into her dry mouth.

There was no sensation of chewing. But she thought she could feel a warmth.

She took all of the data into her body.

“I’ll protect you now.”

Suddenly, it was as if a new hope for life had blossomed.

Not being able to see him right away was lonely and painful, but now she was no longer alone.

*Drip, drip.*

Blood dripped from the hand gripping the broken blade.

Glowing runes began to be engraved upon the blade’s surface.

***

*Drip, drop. Drip.*

The sound of dripping water woke her.

Her mind was blank for a moment. She frowned slightly at the musty smell, unable to recall where she was.

“…”

She remembered.

There was a corpse near her.

The end of the man who had joined hands with the Demon King, vowing to take revenge on all of modern society, lay there.

She’d had no choice but to kill him.

The future he wanted and the future she wanted were different.

They were just using each other anyway, so there was no guilt.

The bigger problem was that the Hero was stronger than she’d expected.

‘I was certain he hadn’t fully recovered his synchronization rate at this point.’

She had repeated this so many times, she thought the timing would be perfect.

But she had failed.

The current Hero shouldn’t have the strength to defeat her yet.

But she couldn’t beat him.

The regressor’s injuries had already healed.

A blessed power of recovery. But right now, she felt her body was cursed.

If only she couldn’t move, if only her wounds wouldn’t heal.

It would be better if she could just get some rest.

She staggered to her feet.

Her data had only recently been transferred here, so her body wasn’t in top condition.

“Hoo.”

She let out a soft sigh.

Manipulating others to change the game had always gone awry anyway.

‘I’ll do it myself.’

Strength entered her eyes.

Based on her past regressions, she resolved once more to create a new game.

“My, my. So, he’s finally dead?”

Hearing the unfamiliar voice, the regressor reflexively drew a shortsword.

“Don’t attack. I’m not an enemy. I just came to see a friend.”

“…”

He was a man with a respectable air. No, to be precise, he had the image of an elite.

“A clean death. No, looks like it was an unexpected blow. Judging by his dilated pupils.”

The man checked the dead Kei’s pupils, opening his eyes like a medical examiner.

His presence was hard to detect.

“You have detection abilities.”

“Porter abilities are nice, but as a support skill, I think detection is the best. Don’t you…”

The man stopped mid-sentence.

The regressor had vanished. A presence was now felt behind him, along with the cold touch of a blade against his neck.

The man chuckled.

“My, for such a pretty lady, you have rough hands.”

“I killed your friend.”

The man shrugged at the regressor’s cold voice.

“He must have done something to deserve it.”

“Why are you here?”

“Hey, how about we talk after you move the blade?”

The man leisurely took out a serrated knife from his coat.

He didn’t look like someone with a knife to his throat.

He then began to saw at the neck of his friend, Kei.

An unpleasant sawing sound echoed as coagulated blood trickled down.

The regressor frowned at the gruesome sight.

“Don’t people usually stay still when there’s a knife at their throat?”

“You would have killed me already if you were going to. Ah, actually, if you decided to kill me, I’d have no choice but to die. I can feel the difference in our strength.”

He was a strange man, but as he said, she could kill him anytime she wanted.

“Why are you cutting off your colleague’s head?”

“Can’t just let him rot in a place like this. The poor thing.”

The man placed his colleague’s severed head into a bag.

“There’s a saying here about following a friend to Gangnam.”

“I’m aware.”

“I can arrange for you to join him.”

She had thought the Villain faction might be useful. But now that she had killed their leader, Kei, there was no reason to join forces with them.

“Wait, wait! I told you not to kill me! Someone like you should know what kind of body this is.”

The man raised both hands and spoke urgently.

Just as he said, the regressor could see he was a possessed Villain.

In other words, a being attached to a modern human.

“If you kill me, an innocent person dies too! Isn’t that a pity?”

“Two birds with one stone.”

She doesn’t kill innocent people.

But she had vowed to do whatever it took to achieve her goal.

Over his corpse, time and time again.

“I’m different from this guy, Kei.”

“Everyone says that.”

“I didn’t really like their plan either. Why? ‘Revenge on the modern world.’ Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? But more than that, I’d rather this world became a little more honest.”

The man said, turning around with his hands still raised.

The regressor and the man faced each other.

“There’s only one thing I want. A world without pretense, where people can kill each other and reveal their honest emotions.”

The man’s eyes gleamed with hope.

“Doesn’t that sound fun? Humans are fundamentally liars. They say ‘I’m fine,’ but on the inside, they’re not. Why else would things like defense mechanisms exist?”

A smile played on the man’s lips.

The insane words, so unfitting for his elite appearance and attire, were downright bizarre.

“Not enough.”

The regressor muttered coldly.

As if waiting for her words, the man spoke again.

“The Order System. It doesn’t discriminate, giving everyone an equal opportunity. But it’s an unfair system.”

The man smiled.

The regressor recalled why she had joined hands with the Villains in the first place.

She wants chaos.

But at the crucial moment, her goal and the Villains’ diverge. What is it?

“Turning the entire population into Hunters. Giving everyone a fair chance. Everyone will hear the truth, and everyone will be able to participate.”

He continued speaking.

“The law of the jungle will begin. Right here, right now. Starting with this small country.”

She listened but did not strike.

In other words, it was a moment when their objectives aligned once more.

“Do as you please.”

The regressor stored her sword in her inventory.

He didn’t know what her true goal was, but she didn’t oppose the process.

“What should I call you? Ah, don’t get me wrong. We need a name to call you by. We all used codenames. You were originally Q, so should I call you Q?”

“…”

“A cold reaction. Codenames are cool, though. You can even embed your ideology into your actions.”

“You don’t need to know. We won’t have any reason to call each other anyway.”

“So cold, so cold.”

The regressor turned away as she spoke.

Left alone, the man, an operations manager from the Disaster Agency, looked at his colleague’s head and smiled.

“You should have known a woman’s heart is like a reed in the wind, my friend.”

A line that should not be crossed.

The reason was unknown, but she was obsessed with the Hero.

“Murderer. That codename would suit her.”

***

After Kei’s death, the Villains could no longer operate.

Because their focal point was gone.

After meeting the operations manager, she began to move to create the game she desired.

Stronger than anyone, nobler than anyone, but possessed a trauma deeper and darker than anyone.

He couldn’t overcome his trauma.

The regressor knows the reason why.

Because he was too strong, too sensitive, and too pure.

That was why he tried to protect the people connected to him.

No, perhaps she was the one who had killed them.

To avoid making the same mistake, the regressor was on the move.

There were no more chances to regress.

In other words, this was the last attempt.

People were stealing glances at her.

She knew the reason for their stares.

They probably thought the Justice Armor she was wearing was some kind of Power Rangers cosplay.

It was a ridiculous outfit.

But it was an outfit no one could laugh at.

She raised her hand. Then, behind her, beside her, and in the air, magic circles began to form.

“W-what is that!”

“Kyaaaah!”

Where the magic circles formed, dark gates opened.

From within, purple-skinned humanoids clad in armor began to appear.

In an instant, the area descended into chaos.

Her cold gaze fell upon a massive guild building.

The Hanul Guild.

The current number one guild, and the place where the people the Hero had raised were.

The demonic soldiers recognized the fleeing people as prey.

They moved without the regressor’s command, eager to enjoy the slaughter.

Eliminate the reasons for him to die.

Eliminate the reasons for him to fight.

Make it so that he can live only for her.

“So you must be the woman the Sir Hero mentioned.”

*Shing.*

A handsome man who had instantly diced a demonic soldier with a sharp whoosh of air was walking leisurely toward her.

The knight wielding the cursed magic sword, Balmung.

“Siegfried.”

The man who would have been the strongest on earth, if not for the Hero, stood before the regressor.